Book X-overs 1. Prologue

**HEYA GUYS!**

**XxItaChanxX here [The writer of this story] with a message for all you readers out there!**

**The first thing to get out of the way here is that this isn't a normal story, this is a sequel. The original story is called 'Jeff the Killer - Not Expected' and it's quite a long one. If you want to understand anything in this story just, you'll need to read that first.**

**You can find it on my account page under its name :)**

**Anyway, a new chapter begins in the world of Jeff the Killer and his friends and lost love...**

**Let's begin, shall we? :)**

**~Ciao**

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**Prologue**

Being trapped was most definitely the one thing that Jessie Walker couldn't handle anymore.

The insanity that the 'experts' claimed that others like her in the institute suffered from and attempted to convince them and her alike – despite having no actual evidence of her having any psychological or mental health issues – that they could be saved from, was nothing compared to the immense pain and suffering of being confined to one building, one room, one person to actually talk to, and no place to call home. Being imprisoned in a building and told what to do and how do it, with the fear of punishment and being completely isolated form any human contact, and worst of all, not being allowed to go outside the bared wired gates of the institute, were the few things driving her to the brink of insanity.

She sat in the office of her psychiatrist, her hands supporting her cheeks and her elbows on the mahogany desk; she sat in the patient's side of the desk, glaring out the barred window to the glistening city lights of the urban night sky, which she was constantly being told she could never witness or dazzle at from anywhere except inside the walls of the mental-health institution. She knew that it must've been terrible for the members of staff at the hospital to have offices with bars on the windows; it must've made them feel like prisoners herself – it was no wonder why most of them hated their jobs.

She had been stuck in the facilities for just about a year now and she had made no improvements according to the doctors. Her memories that went beyond the massacre were virtually non-existent and she showed no signs of knowing why, how or even when she had murdered her parents, friends and classmates; she was convinced for the longest time that the event never really happened and that the hospital's members of staff were keeping her there for unjust reasoning just because they could however, after a couple of months, the confused teenager began to research into her past by asking the gossiping nurses, reading newspapers from around the time of the incident, and reading up on the testimony of the last survivor of the massacre – Anthony Williams, Jessie's previous best friend and next door neighbour – and managed to put everything together and realised that she must've been the one who committed the murders.

The instant she grasped the facts, her disgust and hatred for her own being grew and became a bubble of dark matter that engulfed her already broken and damaged heart, dragging her down and not allowing her to even attempt to do as the doctors and nurses said and try to help herself. She didn't consider herself a bad and uncooperative patient, she just didn't know why they were all trying to help a murderer who would sink so low as to kill her own family and friends for – as far as she could tell – no reason at all; in her eyes, there was no point in trying to regain her memories or become a normal human being. Society would never take her back, no one wanted to help her or even give her the time of day.

Everyone hated her.

The doctors did eventually figure out what was wrong with her after a few months. When she arrived and a mystery individual had dropped her off to the hospital, they instantly realised that she had a large gash on the back of her head, causing a small concussion and damaged to her hippocampus within the brain, effecting not her long term or short term memories as that kind of damage usually does, but all of her memories from before she arrived to the hospital. She had no memories of anything that she had done, meaning that she had no idea that she was a serial killer or who she killed; she had eventually displayed signs of being an ordinary teenage girl and someone who would never even think of harming another person, however because of what she had done and the ripple effect because of it, they couldn't release her from incarceration just yet. She would have to stay at the hospital until she remembered what she had done, just in case she miraculously recalled everything while she was released and killed again, and then she could go through the ordinary procedures of a serial killer; she would be taken to court if she remembered what she did, but there was no point since she would plead for insanity or for not being in control of her actions, meaning that justice couldn't be served. It was for the safety of the public, and all of them felt safer now that she was trapped in the hospital and can't get out.

Jessie sighed and rested her head on her crossed arms, her eyes shut as she listened to the radio. She only ever got a chance to listen to the BBC radio channel when she was waiting for her psychiatrist, Dr. Fredrick, in her office; she always left the radio on for Jessie when she waited for her so she had something nice to do. The patients weren't allowed to do a lot in the hospital, so Dr. Fredrick wanted to make Jessie feel as though she had a chance to be a normal person and use something that she didn't have access to in the hospital – even if it was for a small amount of time.

Jessie liked Dr. Fredrick a lot. She was one of the only people in the hospital that treated her like a person rather than just another patient she had to deal with.

The soothing voice of the man reading the news was contrasted with the seriousness of the topic he was speaking about, which was actually Jessie.

"_It has been nearly a year now since the Oxford Jeff Replica Murders, and all of our hearts reach out to the families and loved ones effected by the cold killings. The teenagers Jonathan-."_

Jessie researched into the people that the doctors said she had killed, including John, Sally, Lavinne and Ann-Ann. Three of them were close friends of hers, but even now she couldn't remember their names; as the BBC radio man read out their names and listed how their families were suffering and coping with their deaths almost a year later, Jessie glanced over to her file, which laid on Dr. Frederick's desk, wondering whether she should bother reading it or not. It may be her last chance to see what the doctor and the hospital really thought of her, although that didn't matter to her anymore.

"…_and the parents of the criminal, Jessie Walker."_

There was her name.

"_The teenager in question was an ordinary girl with a not-so-ordinary hobby, which many of her classmates comment on in interviews about her. She liked to research into famous and not-so-famous serial killers, and take notes on them. After the killings, the police searched her house and found countless books, DVD's and her internet research was covered in information about serial killers and their pasts and crimes. Her classmates state that she never explained why she did this, but it was worrying, however one of her best friends, and the last survivor of the massacre, Anthony Williams, stated that none of the other students knew about the habit except for her close friends because she was self-conscious about sharing information about herself with anyone, let alone her fellow pupils."_

Anthony was the one friend that Jessie heard about the most because he was the one who survived. She hadn't taken an attempt on his life apparently, despite the fact that he ended up in hospital when the events were over. He had taken an attempt at _his own_ life when discovering that Sally Simmonds was dead and gone; they, and Jessie Walker, were a tight-nit group of friends that would've done anything for each other, so when he found out that Jessie had killed her and could be on her way to kill him too, he had decided that taking himself out would've been a good way of escaping his terrible fate and preventing his friend from doing something she'd regret.

Jessie was interested in this friend in particular because he was sill alive; she wondered why she hadn't killed him back then.

"…_and escaped. Jessie Walker is now in the West-End Institute for Mental Recovery and is being kept there because her memories had been wiped clean after a mysterious blow to the head ailed her just before a mystery man or women brought her to the hospital and left her unconscious on their door-step. Some believe that she had passes out after traveling to the hospital herself when she suffered her head injury, thinking that it was an ordinary hospital, or because she wanted to turn herself in knowing that she was insane and needed the help, however there is much question how she got through the gates of the hospital considering the security._

_The girl is considered a Jeff the Killer follower because of her excessive amounts of information on the American murderer. This would explain why the first killings in Oxfordshire around that time were done in an almost identical manner to Jeff the Killer; back then, the majority of people believed that the killings were committed by the infamous man himself, however now we can strongly assume that the murders were committed by Jessie. Some believe that we cannot assume something like that because of insufficient evidence, however the likelihood of this being the case is extremely likely."_

Jessie had had enough of the radio and hearing about this 'Jeff the Killer' that she was believed to be obsessed with; she didn't now much about him as a serial killer, but she knew that he was someone that she didn't want to research or try and learn more about. He couldn't be that special if she didn't remember him now. She stopped listening, but still kept the machine on, so that she didn't feel completely alone in the room.

She really wanted to talk to Dr. Fredrick that day. Recently, she had been feeling different and needed someone to talk to about it. She didn't know if it was because everyone was talking about the murders she committed or because she felt like she was going crazy being locked away in the hospital, but she felt as though she was beginning to get this urge inside her. This urge to do things that she never thought she would ever do and it was eating her up inside.

Her large, dark eyes wondered towards the end of the desk, where there laid two objects, a bull-point pen and a letter-opening knife. She didn't even think that people used those knives anymore, especially someone as young as Dr. Fredrick, but maybe it was just for show. The two objects were covered in a running, red liquid that leaked and dripped from the once clean desk to the light blue carpet, along with Jessie's caramel coloured hands, since they were covered in it as well and now – because of her putting her hands on her face – her face was as well.

"I guess I should get up and get going, huh, Doctor…?"

Jessie's eyes drifted to the floor, which had a large puddle of dark, thick blood that stained the carpet. Next to the large pile was the body of Dr. Fredrick. Her back had been stabbed many times with the bull-point pen, and then her front and legs had been stabbed multiple times by the knife; she was laid on her front, so Jessie could see clearly where she had gouged out her eyeballs and cut out her tongue, allowing for blood to leak from her mouth and drip to the dead head's side.

"I'm sorry, Doctor…" Jessie whispered almost silently. "…but now I can escape."

The murderer got to her feet and walked around to the other side of the desk; she opened one of the draws and found Dr. Fredrick's car keys sitting on top of a pile of papers. Calmly, she picked them up and held them tightly in her dark hands as she made her way to the dead body and hovered over it, still wearing her grey, dull hospital gown that she despised so much; her once shoulder-length, midnight-colored hair had grown to be down the middle of her back. She didn't have a specific agenda to grow it out, but she couldn't be bothered to cut either.

"Now I can leave this place…and be free again…and find _him_…"

~:~

_**One Year Previous:**_

_I remember a guy._

_I don't know what his name is or what he looks like, but I remember what he sounds like. He had a groggy voice, like he was a smoker. And I remember him telling me things that I don't quite understand. _

_Like, I remember him saying that if I used a certain kind of conditioner on him, he'd smell like a strawberry...no, wait, he said he'd smell like a girl and I said that he'd smell like a strawberry._

_And I remember him saying that we were monsters once._

_I also remember him saying that he liked a gamer called…P…Pewdiepie…because I used to watch him game._

_And…and I remember him saying…that…he loved me…_

_I don't remember who he was._

_I want to remember…_

_I want to remember who he was._


	2. Chapter 1: The New Beginning

**Chapter One**

**The New Beginning**

A year had passed and the apartments where the monsters and killers resided hadn't changed in appearance or stature in those three-hundred and sixty-five days, however the atmosphere around the area that Jeff had lived in had changed from being relaxing and generally joyful and socially active, to stressful, quiet and it was a genuinely uncomfortable struggle to be there everyday for one reason and one reason only – Jeff the Killer.

"Jeff! Jeff! Where are you?!"

BEN – the gaming geek and Internet exploring (in the literal sense, not the figurative sense) killer who strongly resembled the protagonist _Link _from _The Legend of Zelda _franchise – was sprinting around his section of the apartments, searching for his best friend and roommate franticly, nearly on the brink of tears. He hadn't seen the murderer since the night before and wasn't told whether he was going anywhere or not, and he needed to know where he was immediately.

For the past year, Jeff had spent his time either being depressed and staying in his room, not speaking to anyone and crying by himself, or he had been going out to town and committing even worse atrocities than he had been doing before – and the Jeff from a year ago was a hard act to follow in that respect. There had been times since then that BEN was forced to go and pick Jeff up from the city because he had been caught by the police for a split second, and he had to stab them and run or people around the street had seen him; he had never been caught before. He was always so charismatic and easily managed to get out of tight situations without breaking a sweat back before he had traveled to England. Nowadays though, if BEN knew that he was going to the city, he would follow him and make sure that he didn't get into too much trouble.

The gamer thought that the breakdown over Jessie and the events of the past year would've let up after a couple of months, maybe half a year at the most, however the situation had only gotten worse. The teenage killer didn't speak to anyone, he ran off on his own, he got himself into difficult situations and was worrying everyone in the apartment block that cared about him, especially BEN.

The night before, BEN had seen Jeff in his room, simply laying on his bed and listening to rock music, while staring at the ceiling. When the child with an adult mind tried to ask the killer whether he wanted to come and eat with the rest of the apartment building – Masky and Hoody usually did the cooking around the place when they were around, and everyone enjoyed their cooking skills – Jeff turned him away coldly and told him to stop trying coddle him as if he were a child. BEN found this statement hilarious and frustrating at the same time considering how many times he'd had to go and save Jeff from the police or the general public in the last year, and the killer repaid his roommate by telling him stop helping him? What a jerk he was. They ended up arguing for around half an hour before BEN left Jeff in their room and rested with Sally for the night instead. When he woke up and went to make amends with his roommate, he was gone.

Hysterically, BEN burst through the door of the lounge, finding Eyeless Jack sitting on the couch, a book on human biology in cold, grey hand and a dull expression on his face, under his mask – that is until he saw how stressed BEN seemed and displayed his concerning look as a result.

"Jack…" BEN gasped. "Have you seen Jeff…?"

The cannibal got to his feet and ran over to the fellow killer, discarding his book on the couch. "No, what's wrong?"

"We argued yesterday and when I went to apologies to him, he was gone! I don't know where he is!"

"Relax, BEN." He placed his hand on the top of the blonds' head. "You can't protect him all the time. He's probably in the city blowing some steam."

The Link-lookalike gazed up at his friend with tears in his dark, bleeding eyes. "But that's what I'm afraid of! If he gets too crazy, he could get in trouble, and I said that I would stick by him no matter what! I left him alone and now he-."

"Stop." Jack interrupted. "You need to calm down, BEN."

"But-!"

"_**Jack's right, BEN."**_

At that moment, the keeper of the apartment complex, the faceless notorious child kidnapper and killer – the Slenderman – teleported into the room behind the two killers; BEN and Jack were used to this, but anyone else would become startled by the sudden appearance. Even Jeff can't handle it sometimes and yelled at his superior for scaring him.

"Slender…" BEN whispered almost silently as he turned to look at the tall individual in the black suit.

"_**You need to relax, BEN."**_

His voice was echoed due to the fact that he never actually spoke when he had conversations with others; his voice traveled through the others' heads and they had telepathic conversation – considering the fact that he had no face, this really made sense. No one ever used their minds to talk back to him, even though it was entirely possible, because they just never thought to. They spoke automatically when talking to him. It was just habit. To an outsider who didn't know anything about the conversation, it seemed as though Jack and BEN were speaking to Slenderman without actually letting him respond.

"But Slender, Jeff's disappeared! We need to go and find him!" BEN's tears had begun to merge with the blood that rested within his eyes, and fall to the floor in crimson, translucent droplets.

"_**He hasn't disappeared, BEN. I know where he is."**_

A look that appeared to be a mixture of relief and confusion appeared on BEN's face, as he wiped his bloody tears away, getting the deep red liquid all over the back of his thin, pale arm. "Did he go to the city? And how do you know where he is?"

"_**You forget that I can track the thoughts of you all, BEN. I saw him leave. He's heading to the city to relieve himself of his anger for today."**_

BEN jolted. "Then we need to go after him! He can't be by himself!"

"_**I'll monitor his thoughts. Don't worry, I'll deal with this."**_

Eyeless Jack gazed over to the sobbing child next to him, and under his mask, he had a sorrowful look on his demonized face; he wondered how such an amazing pair of friends, who told each other everything and were practically inseparable a year ago, could become so distant just because of one event and one girl, and how Jeff could hurt BEN like this because of it. The two would do anything for each other, but at that moment, Jeff was pushing his best friend away, when what he needed was to keep him close and had been for a whole year now. Everyone in the apartment building was extremely depressed watching them separate.

The giant in front of the youths turned around and began to walk out of the room, when he paused and turned is blank face back around.

"_**BEN, Jeff's a strong boy. He'll be okay…"**_

And with that, the leader of the group of monsters wondered out of the room, which was a rare occurrence since the child killer loved to teleport around the place. The blond child continued to wipe his tears away onto the back of his arms as Eyeless Jack placed his hand over BEN's head, where Slenderman's large, paper-white hand was, and rubbed the top of it.

This was the first time that the cannibal had thought of BEN as an actual child. He was crying, his nose was running, his eyes were turning even redder than they already were and his whines were those of a seven-year-old boy. The relentless and intellectual BEN DROWNED, who owned the internet and sent grown men to insanity and eventually, their deaths, was crying over his friend drifting from him.

"_If only Jeff realised how much he's making BEN suffer right now…" _Jack thought to himself. _"I wish he would stop being such a little shit and get back here already…"_

~:~

"…_and the kitten was saved by the firemen, however the whole building was scorched and burnt down to the ground and the cost for recovery of the building will be extremely large for the city to pay, and the residence of the building will have to find another place to stay until the building is recovered. They are all very distressed and upset at the circumstances. In other news…."_

Jeff the Killer sat on the edge of a dirty and unmade motel bed, a cigarette in one hand and the remote to the small, dark television in front of him in the other; his dark mane was rustled and a complete mess, and he was naked, displaying his pale skin and toned body.

He had a bored expression on his face as he wondered how long he'd already been out of the apartments for; all he really remembered from the night he got to the city was finding a prostitute on the street corner – the one that was laying dead on the bed next to him, soaking the pale motel bed sheets with her blood and organs that Jeff had forcefully pulled out as he used her body for his own pleasure – and what he had done to her. Every since Jessie had left him he hadn't felt any kind of respect towards women. He had none left.

Before Jessie, he hated the thought of raping a woman; killing them was just something that he needed to do for his own release and because of what he was, but raping them was so much more disrespectful than just putting them out of their misery. Nowadays, he didn't even flinch at the thought of rape or necrophilia, especially when he was killing them at the same time and ripping their bodies apart – in more ways than one. In fact, it was something that he loved doing. To him, women were something to be used for his pleasure and nothing else. They didn't have emotion and they didn't matter to them.

BEN had told him earlier in the year that he had abandoned his morals and needed to stop going so far with his killing – not because it was wrong, but because it wasn't like him to do – but Jeff hadn't listened to him at all. He didn't see it like that. He was just following the normal pattern of serial killers. He experienced something that made him dislike a certain woman, and that made him hate all women in the world and want to make them pay for what the original woman did to him. He wasn't doing anything that an ordinary human couldn't do.

He put his cigarette out in the ashtray on the worn down, bedside table and got to his feet, stretching his arms out. He had become slightly more in shape since Jessie had left his life. All the running away from police and rape of women and the effort it took to do al of that, caused his muscles had toned up.

"I'd better head out…" He mumbled to himself.

"…_since the massacre, committed by Jessie Walker…"_

Jeff jolted and turned around to face the television, which had a blond news reporter with huge breasts and too much make up reading from a piece of paper, and next to her in a square box, was a picture of the smiling, cheerful Jessie Walker from a year ago, before she had even met Jeff. The picture had been cropped, but Jeff had seen it in her house, hung up on the walls. In it, she was walking through a park with Anthony and Sally, and they were all laughing and joking at something that was unknown to him, and when he asked her, she had forgotten what it was or even, who took the picture.

The killer stared at the TV screen, listening to the information telling him that it had been a year since Slenderman took Jessie to the mental institution.

The memory flashed back into Jeff's mind.

Just before they left the unconscious killer on the porch of the hospital, Jeff kissed her forehead and held her tightly, crying and wishing that she could stay with him, but knowing that she couldn't after she had tried to kill herself. Slender asked him to wrap it up so they could head back home; someone was coming outside and they couldn't be seen, and that was it. His one true love was taken away from him. He knew that she wasn't ready to be a killer, even if she stayed with him and left to go to the apartments; she wouldn't be happy with him, even if she wouldn't be happy with amnesia at the hospital, it was a safe option than letting her live in a place that she didn't belong.

Thinking about her had caused him pain ever since that night.

Her beautiful, caramel-coloured face, the same one that had always brought him a throbbing feeling in his heart, now crushed it and scrunched it up, causing him to want to vomit. Her deep, dark eyes that he could spend hours looking into, he felt as though he couldn't even glance at anymore. Her adorable laugh and giggle that caused a shiver to run down his spine, would only sound like a stretching ringing in his ears now.

The teenage murderer cringed and placed his blood-soaked hand on over his face.

"Jessie…" he gritted his teeth. "Jessie…"

A sudden flash of rage overpowered him and he couldn't control his actions. His hands grabbed the intestines of the prostitute next to him on the bed and began to rip them apart, tearing the flesh and screaming with pure pain and hatred in his voice, the blood flying all over him and his surroundings. The dead body stayed perfectly still as the killer over her ripped her insides even more apart than he already had, her eyes as dead as fishes. He couldn't cause her any more pain, and that was causing him to feel dissatisfied; he wanted to cause pain to others in order to sustain his own and keep himself under control. It was worse than before he met Jessie now. She had made him worse than before she met him and he couldn't escape it.

He wanted to see her and touch her face and her hair again, but he knew that if he did, he would break down and simply become so overly angry that he would most likely kill her.

Tears appeared in his eyes and ran down his pale face, as he screamed out one word and one word only.

"Jessie!"

"Jessie!"

"JESSIE!"

~:~

"I'll see you later!"

Anthony Williams waved his hands towards his school friends, smiling softly and walking the opposite direction to them, towards his house.

A year had passed since the incidents with Jessie and Jeff the Killer, and the Williams family had decided that a move would be the best thing for the family and for Anthony's sanity and education; - which was still the most important thing to Anthony's parents, sometimes appearing to be more important than his own health. The family had moved to Norwich, a small, South-East, English town, with a more rural feel to it than Oxford. The residents were lovely, always smiling and waving at each other – since everyone in the village knew everyone, and were all on good terms with one another – and the place was quiet. A perfect place for Anthony to recover, and recover he had.

The teenager smiled like he had never smiled before, laughing and being with the new friends that he had met a year ago, when he moved to the village; they were all fairly intelligent, and found a kind of peace in studying, just like him; no one else had understood his need to study and how relaxed it made him feel before, not even Jessie or Sally. And considering the fact that the teen had always been asked on study dates by the girls of the school, his popularity was extremely evident. He had friends, he was well-liked by his peers and teachers, his grades were as high as they could possibly be and had ever been and he was the most relaxed he had ever been.

But he never forgot the events of a year ago.

Or the people in the past.

After the incident, he visited Sally's, Lavinne's and Ann-Ann's graves, leaving flowers for each other them, and praying that they rest peacefully; no matter what, he would never visit John's grave, even if he felt that it was disrespectful. Even if he was dead, what he did to Jessie was unforgivable and he refused to go near _his_ place of resting. He visited the girls' graves every day until he moved house, and even now that he lived quite far away, every few months, he would go back to their graves and talk to them for a few hours, just to feel a sense of normality and nostalgia. As much as Anthony was in love with his new life, he still missed his old one.

Although, Sally was never far.

As the glasses wearing teenager wondered down the main street of the small village, he looked up to the sun, wondering whether he should stop by the lake and take a nap next to the ducks; he had done this quite a few times since the weather had been really gorgeous. In the city, he could never just take naps in the parks, with the fear that someone would mug him or even kill him, however that never happened in the village.

Suddenly, he felt a person hold him with the uttermost care from behind. Their hands ran across his chest, gently caressing him in a sweet, invisible embrace. He smirked playfully and turned around to see no one behind him to be able to hold him – or at least, to the untrained eye – or even more accurate, to those without Anthony's eyes.

In the air, in the depths of the slight breeze passing over him, a small, pale, barely visable mist passed through the street behind him; only he could see this mist, for it was so thin and unnoticeable, that it even took Anthony half a year to be able to notice that the mist was even there. Although, now that he had noticed, he couldn't_ not_ notice it. He saw this mist every where he went and it couldn't be unseen by him, even if no one else was aware of its constant presence around Anthony – in his classes, at his house, when he went out with his new friends, any time at all. Wherever Anthony went, the mist went.

This was his own, little secret that no one else could ever know about. The other half of his soul and the other half of his mind, which followed him everywhere, like a small puppy. The other half of him that no one else would ever see or know about.

"Sally…" He whispered as he gave the invisible girl a sweet smile.

He could imagine her standing there, giving him a playful salute in that pure, white dress that she had been permanently wearing since she died and became a ghost that had infiltrated the depths of Anthony's mind. Every night, when the teenager went to sleep and managed to talk to the girl who was allowed to be real in his mind, she would be wearing the feminine outfit, which she would never of worn when she was alive, her being a tomboy and all. Now that she had been dead for a year, he could only picture her in that dress, her never changing, bouncy, dark brown hair dripping down to the middle of her back. He had never pictured her as a real girl until now, and now that had, he knew that she was elegant, adorable and beautiful.

"…_and Jessie Walker has escaped the institution…."_

Anthony flinched and rotated to the side of him, where a television shop stood, its doors open so that passers by could hear the products inside; the teenager stood, eyes wide open and couldn't move. He felt Sally standing next to him and could picture her having the same expression on her face – her large eyes wide and sparkling like the bright moon in the night.

"_The eighteen year old mass murderer killed her psychiatrist in her office by stabbing her with a pen in her office and then, a letter opener and is now on the loose in the UK…."_

Anthony could feel his world come crashing down.

He was reminded once more that good things don't last forever. This was a lesson that he should have learnt a year ago.

Ghost Sally wrapped her unseen hand around the shocked boys' and grasped it as hard as her ghost fingers would allow her. Anthony could feel her fear and her upset at remembering the incidents from a year ago, especially for her, since that when she was killed. He couldn't even imagine what she was feeling right there and then.

All he could do was hold back onto her invisible hand and hope that she wasn't crying, without him being able to see or hear her. That was the one thing that he hated about her being a ghost. He could never tell when he was awake, what she was feeling unless she moved something or smashed something to show that she was angry. She never did anything too obvious like writing something down for him to see because she didn't want to attract attention that would automatically make people think there was a ghost around. At least her smashing things could be explained as wind blowing whatever it was off the surface or it being too close to the edge of whatever it was standing on.

The two teenagers stood there. One alive. One dead. Both wondering why their memories couldn't just die and disappear.

In that moment, Anthony whispered a name that he never thought he would ever have to say again. After the police started to leave him alone, he had moved away from the city into a village where no one cared about things that happened outside of the place and therefore, didn't know who he was, and he had managed to move on with his life, he hoped that he would never have to even think about this person or this name every again.

"Jessie…."


	3. Chapter 2: The Struggle

**Hey guys, XxItaChanxX here for a quick talk.**

**I'm sorry about me not updating the story too often. I know that it's summer break, which means that I should have more time to write and upload, but that isn't how this summer has gone. Personal events have occurred and I haven't been able to find the time to write. I'm sorry. A lot of the problems have been sorted out, so I will have more time to update from now on, but I do apologise for not being able to over the past month or so.**

**I do see writing as an emotional outlet [which is why my stories are so fucked up most of the time] but it's hard to do when you have no time to do it. I hope that you guys bare with me and are patient with these chapters. Thank you.**

**Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I can't wait to write the next one.**

**~ Ciao **

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**The Struggle**

Back at the apartments, in the dead of night, the blond, murderous child was sat on the couch in what was once the reception of the building, fiddling with his thumbs and staring down to the floor. He usually despised being in the lounge at the ground floor of the apartment building alone, since it was large and always silent, with no one else residing within the place. BEN was one for small spaces and being around others; he became creeped out when he was by himself. Being inside the internet for so long caused him to never even wonder what it was like to have friends or be surrounded by others, but after he became a part of the family of monsters, he realsied that he hated to be alone. He loved having other monsters around him who understood his sadistic need to kill humans. He loved having Jeff as a friend because he understood him the most out of anyone in that place.

He sat close to the front door of the apartments, and had been sat there for hours now, waiting for his eye-lidless friend to get back home; other monsters had passed through the room, but none of them cared to ask BEN what he was doing. They didn't seem to want to question it and just got on with their day. The pain of not knowing where he was and not knowing what he was doing was killing BEN. He was so used to helping his best friend when he was in a spot of trouble that not helping felt strange; he was concerned at the fact that he couldn't help him even if he wanted to and he hated the fact that he had been told by the Slenderman that he didn't need to worry about where Jeff was. Of course he was going to worry about where Jeff was. He was his best friend.

Sometimes, BEN thought that Slenderman had forgotten what had happened to Jeff a year ago. He had lost the one person in the world that he could connect to in an emotional, mental, physical and sexual way – which was extremely difficult for killers like them – and not only that, but he lost her because of her own decision – which was far to late for her to have made – that she couldn't be with him forever and decided that her only way out was death. Although, to the Link-lookalike, at this point in time, she might as well have been dead considering Jeff would never see her again and the way that Jeff was acting.

BEN understood Jeff's agony. It would be the same thing as him losing Jeff – as he slowly was – and the thought of that killed him inside; he could understand why Jeff was doing what he was doing, but couldn't understand why he wasn't asking for help. In BEN's opinion, if he had lost Jeff and knew that he couldn't see him again, he would cling to someone that he was close to in the apartments, for example Eyeless Jack or Sally. So, he couldn't comprehend why Jeff was instead, pushing everyone else around him away; he surely didn't want to be alone after everything that happened, so what were his motives?

A creaking noise came from the other side of the lounge that BEN recognized was a door opening. The blond child turned around with a relieved smile on his face, hoping that Jeff had returned. To his disappointment, the individual coming through the door was Eyeless Jack, coming in to check up on BEN.

The small killer sighed. "Oh…it's only you."

"Well, thanks." The eyeless cannibal stated sarcastically. "You're still waiting for Jeff, aren't you?"

"Yeah." BEN mumbled. "I can't just not worry, like Slender said. He's my friend."

Jack sighed exaggeratedly and wondered towards the couch, only to sit down next to BEN and place his large, grey hand on the blonds' hair. "Jeff's a big boy, BEN. He'll come back in his own time."

"What if he doesn't?" BEN retorted with. "What if he decides to run away? What if he never wants to come back?!"

"Slendy said that he was watching him, BEN. He can observe us when we aren't here. If Jeff tries to leave, Slendy'll teleport to where he and drag him back here." Jack sighed once more. "BEN, you need to stop worrying so much. When was the last time you killed someone?"

Silence took over the lounge as BEN dug deep into his memories and attempted to remember when he last murdered another; he took a few moments to try and recall his memories of the past few months. Jack turned up an eyebrow underneath his leaking mask.

"I have no idea." BEN said blankly.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jack exclaimed. "When you can't even remember the last time, that's when you _know _that you need a top up." The human-eating killer got to his feet and reached out his hand to BEN. "Come on. You need to get on the internet and kill someone. It's been too long. You can worry about Jeff later. He'll be back."

The gamer thought about what his friend was saying. He had spent his whole day worrying about his friend who hadn't even possessed the common courtesy to let him know that he was alive after he stormed out; he couldn't believe that he spent the whole day worrying about him when he knew that Slenderman – who was extremely responsible and caring towards Jeff and the other monsters who reside within the apartment buildings – was watching over him. He had no need to worry.

Hesitantly, he reached his hand for Jack's, nearly accepting his offer.

SLAM

The two monsters turned to the front door and saw Jeff walking through it, the door slowly shutting behind him; the killer was covered in blood and what looked like residue from someone's organs on his trouser legs. His knife was in his hoody pocket and was staining the already blood-soaked clothing in an even darker crimson. Instant concern flooded BEN's face as he realised that Jeff must've raped and killed another innocent woman.

"Jeff! Where-!"

Before BEN could even finish his sentence, Jeff flew passed his two fellow monsters and ran towards the stairs, heading for his and BEN's room.

"Hey!" Jack called out to him. "BEN was about to talk to you, you little shit!"

It was already too late. Jeff had disappeared upstairs without even looking at his friends. It appeared as though he hadn't even seen them standing there and was lost in his own thoughts. Eyeless Jack turned to his friend, appearing angry from his sharp, clenched teeth.

"Damn…he's such a fucking prick sometimes." Jack placed his hands on his waist and leaned his head back so that he was facing the ceiling. "I mean, you spend your whole day worrying about his ungrateful ass and he repays you by storming passed you and not even looking at you?! What a fucking dick-head! I can't believe-!"

In that moment, BEN's small hands grabbed Jack's dark blue hoody, causing the raging killer to look down at his companion. BEN's large, dark, leaking eyes stared up at his friend, watery as if he was about to break down and cry. His lower lip was beginning to tremble.

"Stop….Please stop…" BEN mumbled. "He's a good friend….he is…."

"_I just miss the old him…"_

~:~

"So…Jessie actually managed to escape from the hospital, huh?"

Anthony stood in the abyss of his own dream, his arms crossed and his feet planted firmly on the invisible ground. His facial expression was one of sorrow and anger mixed together, but he had no idea how to feel as he stood in front of his dead best friend. Sally leaned against a non-existent wall that no matter how much he tried, Anthony couldn't find or lean on like she did whenever he was in one of his dreams – maybe it was something to do with her actually living in the space or her being a ghost. Her expression was one of surprise, but not a negative surprise. She flicked a strand of her long, chestnut-brown hair behind her shoulders and sighed.

"I didn't think she had it in her to escape from a hospital like that." Sally commented. "She could barely play hide and seek before all of this. How did she manage it?"

Anthony flinched and scowled. "This isn't a joke, Sal."

The ghost girl turned to her aggravated friend, her expression blank. "I know that, Anthony. Relax." Her arms were pressed down on her curvy hips as her creamy face glanced upwards at nothing. "I'm just shocked…"

It had been a long time since Anthony had even thought about Jessie or the events from a year ago; he had worked hard to forget about them so that he could live a normal life and get on with what he wanted to do. Sally was a ghost and didn't have the luxury of living in the normal world and having a normal life; she was constantly reminded simply by the small space that she was forced to reside in what she was and that she was dead. She was allowed to observe Anthony in the real world and follow him around, but that was as far as it went; she couldn't actually be with him or walk around with him, as much as she wanted to. She would always remember the events of a year ago and Jessie and Jeff the Killer, because they were the reason why she was dead and why she was ghost.

The tomboy ghost stared at Anthony with serious eyes for the first time in a long time. "So…what do you plan to do?"

The on-edge teenager jolted. "Nothing. What the hell can _I _do?!"

"You do realise that there's a chance that she'll come and find you." Sally stated coldly.

"No, she won't!" Anthony yelled. "She's lost her memories, remember?! The police told me when they found that she was at the hospital! You should remember! You were there too!"

"Amnesia doesn't always last forever, Anthony." A small, sarcastic chuckle escaped Sally's mouth. "She could remember that you're still alive and then decided to pay you a visit. What if that happens?"

"I want nothing to do with her!" The glasses-wearing teen exclaimed. "She killed people that we care about, Sal! Lavinne and Ann-Ann weren't so lucky as to be brought back as ghosts!"

"Hey! Don't get pissy with me, Anthony!" Her back was off of the wall now and her fists were clenched. "I'm just giving you a possible scenario! She could come and find you!"

"I don't want her too! I HATE HER!"

Sally stopped. Her face became sullen and her whole body became numb. She never thought that she would hear those words be spoken by Anthony in regards to Jessie; he may have been extremely angry at her for everything that she and Jeff had done, and for trying to run away with him and leave us behind, but she never thought that he actually _hated_ her. This was a shock that she wasn't sure that she would get over.

"You know…" She began as Anthony started to develop tears in his eyes. "If I were still alive…I would try and face the problem...head on…"

Sally approached Anthony and gently tugged at his shirt, causing him to glance at her as a tear fell down his cheek.

"I would be trying to use my connections to the police and try to find out where she is. Even if I didn't want to even look at her again, I wouldn't want her to harm anyone else. For all we know, she's remembered everything and wants to find Jeff again and go on another killing spree. Jeff's killing left, right and centre right now, and she could be wanting to join him; this could be a case of us helping to save someone else's life…but failing all of that…I personally want to see her again…she may have had a hand in all of these killings…and my death…but at that last moment, she realsied what she was doing and stopped. She could still be the Jessie that we know and love…"

Sally rested her head on Anthony's wide chest softly and wrapped her arms around him as her porcelain cheeks went slightly pink; Anthony didn't move, but his face became scrunched up and he couldn't stop blushing.

"At least…that's what I think…" Sally whispered.

*RING*

The two teens flinched and realsied that in the real world, Anthony's mobile phone was ringing. One of the advantages about being in the dream world with Sally was that Anthony could always hear loud noises coming from wherever he was sleeping at the time; they both just assumed that it was one of his new friends since they were the only ones who actually called him anymore, except for when his parents needed to know where he was.

Sally realsied that she was holding him and became completely red – almost as red as Anthony was throughout the entire hug. She backed away from her friend and faced the invisible floor, trying to hide her crimson face by letting her shining locks and fringe cover it; luckily for her, Anthony was too busy being flustered himself to notice her nervous behaviour and blushing face.

"I-I think that I should wake up and g-get that!" Anthony stumbled.

"Y-Yeah…"

Anthony awoke on his bed, his phone ringing next to him on his bedside table. He glanced out the window and it wasn't too dark outside; he had gone to sleep the instant that he got home since he wanted to talk to Sally immediately after he found out that Jessie had escaped from the hospital. When he found out, he could feel her holding his hand by the cold feeling of her ghost touch and knew that this was a matter that he needed to discuss with her immediately. Putting himself to sleep wasn't difficult. All he needed to do was rest his head and close his eyes, and he would be asleep instantly; when he was relaxed enough Sally could somehow drag his mind into his own dream with ease so that they could speak for as long as possible. This wasn't the most normal of ways to live, but not many people got to speak to those that they have lost. Anthony just saw this whole situation as him being the luckiest guy in the world.

The drowsy teenager picked up his phone and answered it hesitantly, his heart beating a million miles a minute.

He hadn't spoken to Charlotte since the day of Sally's, Lavinne's and Ann-Ann's funeral. She wished him the best of luck in the new village that he was moving to and hugged him for the last time on that day; even though she was just a policewoman on the Jeff the Killer replica murders case, she clearly cared about Sally and Anthony and was very upset when she found out about Sally's death. She had been the one person who hadn't been involved in the whole incident with Jessie that didn't know what was happening that treated Anthony like a human being rather than someone to feel sorry for, and he loved that about her.

He was slightly glad to be hearing for her. He missed her happy-go-lucky and caring attitude towards Sally and him.

He hesitantly answered the call while keeping laid down on his bed.

"Hello." He said briskly. He didn't mean to sound cold, but since he had heard Jessie's name, all of his joyful attitude had disappeared and he was ready to be mean and horrid to everyone he knew – Jessie now had that effect on him. Luckily for him, the kind and sensitive Charlotte didn't even notice.

"_Hey! Anthony! Long time no see!" _She sounded like a mixture of being happy to hear from him and sad due to the circumstances. It was an odd mixture of emotions for one person to put into their voice.

"Hey Charlotte."

Anthony had no idea why, but he could sense that this discussion with Charlotte would change a lot of things in his current life. Like the saying goes, the past always comes back to bite you.


	4. Chapter 3: Survival

**Well, I tried to update as soon as I could and here it is.**

**I'm back of school as of yesterday, so I hope that now that I have a solid routine of the day, that I can get more time to sometimes, sit back, relax and write. This is what keeps me calm and keeps me from killing someone myself (^_^)**

**These past few months have been really shit for me and getting back into writing is helping with my stress. It isn't school or anything that's stressing me out, but personal affairs. Hopefully, I can move on and get over all of it soon, but until then, I'll relieve my stress and keep writing as much as I can...and the same goes for my other story, Creepypasta's Nightmare.**

**I'll let you guys read and I'll see you hopefully soon.**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**Survival**

Jessie Walker wondered around the bright and vibrant streets of London in a radiant afternoon, as she glanced around for a place to rest her head for the night; she hadn't slept for the whole of the night before so that she could escape from the hospital and ensure that no one was following her as she ran away – and she was exhausted. She was well aware that her face was planted all over the news, so begging someone to stay at his or her place wasn't an option; killing someone for their place wasn't her favourite option either and she was desperate not to have to come to that, however she didn't know what other choice she had. It may come to that soon.

Luckily for her, she had found a homeless shelter where they only donated clothes, meaning that she could change out of her hospital gown and into something more normal and therefore, she could blend in with everyone else – but that didn't solve her problem of finding a place to stay for the night. She had on a black hoody and a flowing, black skirt, which showed off her soft, smooth, chocolate coloured legs and a run down pair of sneakers – at least she could run from the police in them if she needed to. Plus, the hoody was a nice place to hide her knife so that no one noticed she had it. The last thing she needed was someone reporting her for having one out in the open; she couldn't go back to the hospital. While having the nightgown on, she resorted to sticking the knife into the sides of her underwear, but she found that so uncomfortable and she had to be careful when she moved, so it was too inconvenient. Her long, dark hair also flowed in the small breeze that few past her; she wanted to cut her hair before she escaped from the hospital, but she didn't have the time. It could become a liability soon if someone – meaning the police – grabbed it and pulled her to them, or it got caught in something. She had no idea why she let grow in the first place.

She gently tugged at her raven coloured hair and whispered to herself. "How did I let it get this long…?"

Escaping from the hospital wasn't too difficult. Once she killed her Dr. Fredrick, Jessie took her car keys and made a clumsy, but sneaky escape that she had been planning for weeks. She climbed out of the doctor's window carefully and ran towards her car in the parking lot; Jessie had no idea how to drive, but she made a go of it and luckily, she didn't crash into anything or run anyone over – the last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself. Attached to the therapist's car keys was her I.D., which was useful when it came to getting through the front gate of the institution, where you need to scan your I.D. to get into or out of unless you were a visitor – Jessie couldn't exactly pass for a visitor when she was leaving way passed visiting hours. She escaped with no problems.

She heard on the radio in the car that people knew that Dr. Fredrick had died and she ditched the car as soon as she reached the outskirts of London. When the police did eventually find her car, they would know that Jessie took it and would definitely looking for her to convict her for stolen possessions and murder – again – or they would lock her in he hospital again. Jessie didn't want either.

The murderous teenager may not have seemed it, but she had a goal and a reason beyond hating it at the hospital to escape from there. She had someone that she needed to find and answers to many questions that she's had for the past year. The only problem she had was that she had no idea where the man she wanted to find was or what he looked like or his name. The only thing that she knew about him was that he existed and she was 100% positively sure about that. She knew that he had to be somewhere.

Her plan was to travel back to Oxford and hopefully find him there. She knew that it was a long shot being that it had been a whole year and she knew that Anthony Williams had moved houses already, so there was a chance that he wouldn't be there either, but it was a good place to start. She would have to hide while being there – she couldn't let anyone see her and report her to the local authorities. She was going to the place that everyone would expect her to go to – back to the scene of her crimes – but she needed to go there and find him somehow.

He had to be there. Somewhere.

All of a sudden a woman with massive breast that Jessie couldn't miss bumped into the lost teenager while holding hands with who appeared to be her boyfriend – or to Jessie, it looked like her 'fuck-buddy'. Jessie apologised even though the woman was the one who bumped into her to try and be polite and even tried to give a fake smile in order to not draw attention to herself and cause a scene like she wanted to, but the blond big-busted woman just scowled at the killer teen and walked on hand in hand with her man.

This gave Jessie flashes of images of pushing the blond to the ground and gutting her, pulling her insides out of her and covering herself in the rude woman's blood, laughing and being in pure ecstasy while doing so.

The images of death and blood and guts caused Jessie's heart rate to begin to increase and her face to become flustered; she leaned against the brick wall next to her and tried to catch her breathe while holding her heart, wishing that it would calm down. People passing by where looking at her strangely, but no one recognized her, to her surprise; this gave her a sense of relief, but her heart rate wouldn't go down.

For a while now, this need to kill has grown even stronger within Jessie, not subsiding no matter how much she didn't want it to happen or she begged to God to make it stop; she didn't want to hurt anyone and she _really_ didn't want to _like _hurting anyone. She wanted to prove to everyone around her that she wasn't a cold-blooded killer like they were making her out to be – although she did realise that killing her therapist and escaping from the hospital wasn't the best way to do that. It was becoming more obvious that the media hadn't been lying when that said that Jessie Walker was a killer; Jessie hadn't been able to remember killing anyone, but she could remember the feeling of _needing_ to kill.

The feeling had appeared within her at the hospital many times. She would be simply reading the terrible books that were donated to the hospital in her room or thinking about how crappy her next meal would be and suddenly, images of death and murder would enter her head. At first, she was scared and disgusted with them and would try to lock them out of her mind through any means she could come up with – whether that be banging her head against the walls or trying desperately hard to think about something else – but over time she began to accept the thoughts and then ended up liking them and actually looking forward to them. They were the only release from her mundane life of captivity that she would ever get. She would spend hours thinking about killing other patients in the hospital or one of the nurses that came into her room to give her a check up or food, and at one point, she was ready to go through with killing someone who entered her room – she even asked to go into Dr, Fredrick's office a few times so that she could steal a pen so that she could stab one of the nurses, just like she had the doctor – but she ended up thinking that it wasn't worth it or she would chicken out.

Although, more than her need to kill, she couldn't stop thinking about the boy who she had forgotten. She had no distinct memories of him, but she could recall things that he had said or conversations that they'd had. Most of all, she remembered the amazing feeling that she'd gotten when around him and knew that he was the one that she needed to be with more than anything else; she had so many questions for him, but he never went to see her at the hospital and she had never heard the gossiping nurses talk about him. They only spoke about the people she'd killed and that Jeff the Killer guy. She knew that she couldn't mean _nothing_ to him considering how she remembers how strongly she felt about him, so she wondered what happened to him and why she hadn't seen him yet.

She knew that she didn't kill him. The only men she killed were her father, this guy in her school called John, who she eventually, after some time, remembered slightly as a mean guy and it couldn't be him that she felt like this for, and his friends, but she heard the nurses saying that she didn't know them. She couldn't have killed him, meaning that unless he died while she was in the hospital, he was somewhere out there in the world. Even if he did die while she was in the hospital, at least if she found that out then she would know for certain that he was unattainable. If that were the case, she wouldn't have a reason to go on except to kill and in her eyes, that wasn't worth being on the run for her whole life.

She would just have to end it all.

"Fuck…" She mumbled to herself. "I need to calm down…otherwise I'll want to kill someone…"

"Hey."

The distressed escapee turned to her side, her heart skipping a beat at the fact that someone had approached her and tried to speak with her; they could have been the police or a civilian who knew who she was and wanted to turn her into the authorities. She had only escaped her terrible life the night before. Things couldn't end this quickly and she didn't want to have to kill someone just to keep them quiet. That would be a waste of her time.

Her large, dark eyes fell upon a young man in his early twenties, who appeared to have a large smile on his face; he had slight morning stubble, large, bright eyes, messy, blond hair that was hidden beneath a black beanie and clothes that seemed very retro. Jessie remembered from her days outside of the hospital that guys like this were called 'hipsters'. She couldn't remember why, but she recalled not particularly liking them very much.

"You okay?" His smile stayed the same – large and wide. It was unsettling.

Jessie breathed deeply to calm herself down and stood up straight. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" He asked, leaning in uncomfortably close to Jessie's face. "…because if you're not, there's somewhere I can take you to help you…and to help _relieve _you of your pain."

Jessieknew what this guy was asking immediately. She may have been trapped in a hospital for a year and was away from other ordinary humans with ordinary urges and needs, but she remembered what someone asking for a sexual favour sounded like and what look people had on their faces when they asked for them; she hadn't been on the other end of a request as far as she could remember, but she remembered seeing that kind of thing on television and this man in front of her looked like he wanted to get in her pants.

For a split second, Jessie was ready to just walk away from this guy and not look back, but then she realsied something. Her need to kill was growing stronger and stronger. She could barely control her breathing or manage her heart rate; she needed to either run into a freezing-cold lake to cool off – she knew that there were no clean lakes in or near London and it wasn't cold outside either since it was spring – or kill someone to relieve the pain and urge.

This guy seemed like a perfect candidate. He would ask to take advantage of a clearly unwell, young, defenseless teenage girl who might be completely oblivious to the dangers of men – that made him a bad person, meaning that Jessie could easily justify this killing.

A small smile appeared on her face as she faked gratitude. "Thank you…where is it? I'm in a lot of pain…"

"Just come with me." He reached his large hand out to her. Without a moment's hesitation – and a hint of desperation – Jessie took it.

She wanted to kill this guy as fast as she could.

~:~

The two young adults walked hand in hand for a couple of blocks, passing unsuspecting citizens who lacked the knowledge that Jessie was planning on killing this random stranger, before reaching an abandoned apartment building that seemed to not have been inhabited for quite a few years; the outside of the place was run down, displaying broken windows, a busted door, broken antennas hanging off the side of the building and paint from the outside of the building that had been chipped and scratched off – in addition to the graffiti spray-painted all over the side of the walls saying lines that made little sense to Jessie about saving the gangs of the city and that crime is true freedom – she could only agree that killing was true freedom for her, but other than that, the writing made no sense to her. The lawn of the building hadn't been mowed in a long time – years by the look of it – leaving a long safari-like grass patch that Jessie was tempted to run through and pretend to be chased by a lion; this was a place that Jessie could've have imagined to be a better place to kill someone.

Jessie's first thought was how cut off this building was from the main roads of London and how no one would go near it even if they were dared to; it was like the main killing spot of a horror movie. Jessie remembered horror movies. She remembered that teenagers would go to places like this one because of a dare and would assume that nothing would happen to them – but what do they know, a murderer is hiding there, waiting for them. It was a place where people would suspect drug users or rapists to be hanging around, so no one would hear the man with her scream or come and help him.

Perfect.

A fake cough escaped her mouth as she still pretended to be sick for the stranger holding her hand.

"Is this the place?" She asked innocently.

"Uh-huh." He responded lightly. "Don't worry. I'll take care of you here…"

Jessie gently held onto his arm, causing him to glance down at her, his wide smile still stitched on his face; when he saw her face, he couldn't help but blush slightly and widen his blue eyes. Her smile was a false one, but it was still sweet and looked like the genuine smile of an innocent young girl who was showing gratitude.

"Thank you…I really appreciate it…"

The stranger became slightly flustered and his smile became more relaxed. "I…It's alright."

Manipulation was something that Jessie wasn't sure whether she would be good at or not – since she couldn't manipulate anyone in the hospital or even attempt to try out because her contact with other patients was restricted – but it seemed that she had an adorable face that she could use to get what she wanted. She would keep that in mind when she needed something from a man. Also, she didn't know why, but this guy clearly found her attractive since he asked her for a sexual favour in the first place, so maybe she could use her body as well as her face; knowing all of this would make it so much easier to kill others for her when she needed to.

The two wondered inside the broken front door and walked through the dirty, un-kept, empty hallways, still hand in hand. It was only when they reached a desolate room at the back of the building with nothing in it that they were released from each other's grip. Jessie looked around the room, still breathing slightly heavily so as to keep her defenseless looking appearance up; she took a few steps forward and inspected the room, ready to note anything extraordinary down in her mind if need be.

"So…do you have medicine here…?" She asked.

"Well…a kind of medicine…" The hipster responded with in a sinister voice.

A sly smile appeared on Jessie's face as she heard the man slowly shut the door to the room. She reached into her pocket, ready to garb her knife, ready to attack the guy behind her; she had figured out her plan already. She would let him approach her and try to kiss her – maybe even pin her down – then she would stab him in the stomach and the rest would flow naturally to her. Her mouth began to leak saliva from the desperate need to slide her knife into the man's gut and slice through to the other side of his stomach in order to watch his intestines fall out of him and cover herself in his blood. Her heart rate increased and she couldn't stop breathing heavily – genuinely this time.

This was going to be a good kill.

"So, do you li-?"

GRAB

"Mnh!"

Suddenly, a couple of large hands grabbed Jessie by the arm and covered her mouth, making her unable to speak or reach for her knife, which stayed steadily in her pocket; the large person with large features rotated Jessie against her will so that she was facing the man who had just dragged her to the apartment building in the first place. His smile was back to being more sinister and he was now surrounded by two other guys who looked similar to him in style, except their eyes were red and they seemed pale and thin.

"So…I hope you enjoy your treatment, little one."

Jessie's eyes widened. Her heart felt like it had been crushed by someone like a scrap of paper and her words were trapped in her throat, making her not even be able to _try_ and speak beneath this mans gigantic hand; she couldn't even contemplate how she felt at that moment. Sweat began to drop from her brow and she felt claustrophobic, almost as if she couldn't breathe and not just from her covered mouth, but her nose as well.

If she had to guess, she would call this feeling fear.

The man holding her threw her to the floor, which caused her to land with a large thump; she felt a slight pain in her side from where she landed and she had to grit her teeth to be able to bare the throbbing in her arm from its unwanted contact with the ground.

The hipster got on top of her and two of his apparent friends held her arms down as she squirmed and tried to bare the pain – for men who looked as though they hadn't eaten in months, these two had a lot of strength to be able to hold a full-grown teenage girl down. As he loomed over her, Jessie tried to speak, but still couldn't say a word; her chest began to hurt and so did her head. Her mind was throbbing and causing tears to form in her eyes from the discomfort; her trembling wouldn't stop. She was actually displaying fear for the first time that she could remember. She had feared nothing at the hospital except for her thoughts of death, but they never made her react like this.

She had a strange feeling that she had seen or even experienced a scene like this before.

"Well…" The stranger began. "Let's begin."

His hand went at the bottom of her hoody, as he pulled it up, exposing her bare breasts; she hadn't gotten time to grab a bra from the hospital – since the patients didn't wear them usually because of the underwire being too dangerous for them to have in their possession – and the homeless shelter where she got her clothes from didn't have any in her size, so she didn't bother trying to find one. It didn't seem too important to her at the time. The men around her whistled and grinned at each other clearly impressed.

The one on top of her laughed and said "Wow, that's a pair. How old are you anyway?"

Suddenly, flashing images of a scene like this appeared in Jessie's mind. She was under a boy around her age, but she couldn't make out who it was, with two boys holding her down just like this; the only difference was that this boy was inside her, rocking back and forth and she was in immense pain. The images were accompanied by the sounds of her screaming in pain and the boys all laughing, just like the men were now.

The tears fell to the side of her face onto the filthy, dusty floor and she stared up at the men with a terrified look.

"P…Ple…Please…D-."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Everyone, including Jessie, rotated and gazed upon a massive Jack-in-the-box that had appeared out of nowhere; it stood backed up against the wall with wallpaper rolling off of it and stood tall. The box was black and white and was emitting the acoustic version of 'Pop the Wesel', giving everyone except for Jessie a chill up their spines.

The lid of the box gradually opened, creating a mist as it did. The men had lost all interest in Jessie and she had noticed immediately; the box in front of her had been a shock to see, but the most important thing for Jessie at the moment was getting away from the boys in front of her. Her knife was now in reach as the men holding her arms had released their grip of her – a dangerous mistake to make. Her arm slowly reached for her hoody pocket so as not to alarm anyone as she stared at the man on top of her, just to make sure that he didn't try to stop her and that his eyes stayed on the box.

"JESSIE! DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVEMENT!" yelled out the deep, echoing voice from the box. "AND DON'T BEG FOR MERCY! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU!"

Jessie flinched and stared at the box once more. Now she had taken a full-on interest in the box and the fact that whatever was speaking from within it, knew her name.

By this point, the men had began to run out of the building, some of them crying, some of them cursing about not being able to screw Jessie; the confused teenager sat up, eyes still on the box. She was frustrated that her need to kill wouldn't be satisfied, but she was thankful to this mystery box for saving her. She had no idea what those images in her head were, but they began to worry the murderer. Although, she would have to save thinking about them for another day.

"Jessie…."

All of a sudden, a clown began to levitate out of the box, his colour scheme being black and white, just like the box. His hair was black and a complete mess, his nose was a black and white danger hazard because of how sharp and long it was, his teethe were as pointed as a shark, his fingers were dark and practically claws and he didn't seem to be able to stop laughing while leaving his home in the box.

Jessie was astonished at this character and wondered who he was.

"Don't worry…" He mumbled. He bent over and curtsied for her, placing his arms behind his back and keeping his head down.

"Laughing Jack's here for you…"


	5. Chapter 4: Old Life New Life

**Chapter Four**

**Old Life. New Life.**

Anthony had no idea that Charlotte would travel all the way to the village that he lived in simply to speak to him about what had happened. The teen had stressed to her that he didn't mind simply speaking with her on the phone- not because he didn't want to meet with her, but because he didn't now how much reminders of Jessie's existence and what she had done to his life that he could take – and that he would find it easier to simply speak where he couldn't see her and be reminded of his past, but she wouldn't tale that as an answer and insisted on travelling that long distance to see him. He couldn't exactly say no when she was going to such lengths to lay her eyes upon him; this must've been important to her.

He walked slowly down the gravel pathway through the park, the café that they agreed to meet in, clearly in his sight. He had been in there many times with his new school friends before class and he really liked the coffee there – especially since it was the only café in the village and the one place that he could grab some good hot drinks before school if he needed to pull an all-nighter to study, which happened quite often.

The walk there gave him some time to think about whether he was going to get involved with this incident with Jessie or not. The previous night, Sally had seemed adamant about him getting involved and simply ignoring what Jessie had done to him and his friends, but he didn't think that he could do that. The amount of pain and suffering that he went through and the amount that he had to recover was too much for him to simply forgive her for and move on. She was the one responsible for Sally's death, so he had no idea why she had simply said that Jessie could change and actually believed in her. There was no way that he could help her now. He was too damaged _because _of her to show her any kind of forgiveness and get her back where she belonged. In the hospital, with time to recover.

That was his decision and he was desperate to keep to it.

As he approached the tiny café, he glanced through the window at the front of the building to search for his company; it didn't take long for him to notice her sat, already with a cup of tea on her small table. Antony's bright eyes widened as he observed this policewoman sat in the same place where he would usually sit with his friends when he went to sit in this establishment; she had changed quite dramatically since the last time he saw her.

She had somehow started to look younger than she was. Her sparkling, blond hair had been cut down to her shoulders – which gave a more appropriate image to the officer of the law – she wasn't wearing make-up like Anthony remembered her wearing when they first met, causing her natural beauty to shine through and she was wearing a white collared-shirt and black, pencil skirt, making her appear very professional.

Back when Jessie and Jeff had been killing the people around him, Anthony hadn't really noticed before, but Charlotte was extremely charming and adorable at the same time. He had been so stricken with grief at the death of his friends that he didn't even notice how lovely she really looked; his only interest at the time was Jessie, but since she was out of the picture – well, not anymore – he could observe other women and not feel guilty about it – not that he really had a chance with Jessie to begin with, meaning that he didn't have a reason to feel so guilty about looking at other woman.

Charlotte Maypoles had always seemed so kind, caring and lovable, but never anything like the stereotypical policewoman; Anthony and Sally seemed more impressed by her support than anything else when they found out that Lavinne and Ann-Ann had died – not knowing that their best friend had been the one to make it happen in the first place.

Suddenly, Anthony felt a presence that he was sure was Sally. She gently brushed his hand, signalling that she was excited to see Charlotte as well as Anthony suddenly was from seeing her current beauty. Anthony had learnt Sally's ghostly movements and what they meant over the past year and now, she was so easy to read when he was awake and couldn't actually see her. He nodded in agreement to the excitement and smiled as he walked into the café.

Charlotte immediately got to her feet and grinned with a tear in her eye at Anthony. The second that he approached the table, she wrapped her arms around him without saying a word and pulled him in close; the other customers in the café were all looking at these two, however Anthony didn't care about that. He was more worried about the fact that the policewoman's chest was pressed up against his; a year ago, he never noticed how bouncy her chest looked – he was too gentlemanly to objectify women like that – but now he couldn't help but love the feeling of having a girl's chest against his. He was an inexperienced guy after all.

"C-Charlotte!" He called out as he blushed uncontrollably. "H-Hello!"

She pulled away, a tear running down her face as she continued to grin, displaying her pure, white teeth.

"It's really good to see you, Anthony." Her voice was sweet and comforting, like a mothers.

After the chest-to-chest contact was over and the glasses-wearing teenager was able to stop blushing, he managed to pull off a smile and return the gesture.

"Yeah…it's good to see you too, Charlotte."

~:~

"Whoa! You're thinking of going to Cambridge University?"

Charlotte leaned forward over the table with an impressed expression on her porcelain face, nearly knocking over her now empty teacup; Anthony chuckled slightly at how childish she still was acting and asked her politely to sit back down. She did as he told, blushing slightly at her whimsical behaviour, realising that the villagers in the café were staring at her once again. Anthony hadn't gotten to know Charlotte in great depth and didn't realise that she was childish like this; as mature as he had become, he didn't mind her behaviour. He found it slightly cute – just like how he found Jessie cute a year ago instead of now thinking of her as a monster.

"That's a big deal." She continued in a more whispered tone. "I always knew that you were a smart one. You have the look."

"I'm not sure what that means, but thank you." Anthony had ordered a black coffee and had only taken one sip so far; Charlotte had asked him so many questions about himself that he didn't even know when he would be able to drink his bitter, caffeine drink in peace. "My parents wanted me to go to Oxford University, but I don't really want to go back there…"

The policewoman's face loosened and she didn't know how to respond. She simply looked down into her teacup with melancholy eyes and nodded with a sense of understanding; her words were lost in her throat and she didn't know what to say. She could tell that this was the most tactful attitude to take, since it was evident that Anthony was sick and tried of people telling him that they were sorry for what had happened to him back in Oxford or even overhearing others discussing the incident. He was glad that he was finally speaking to someone who understood his need for normality and a more relaxed attitude towards his previous tragedies.

He tried to change the subject. He felt a slight smidge of guilt for causing Charlotte to glance down like that; she was so much cuter when she smiled, so he didn't want to cause a sad expression to be on her face if he could help it. "What about you? How are you doing? How's Phillip?"

Her face started to light up again. Anthony gave a slight smile of relief; it was a good thing that she wore her heart on her sleeve. "Oh, Phillip's retired now. He happily left the job just a few weeks ago. It was sad to see him go. He's heading off to Italy with his wife."

"Oh, how lucky." The teen was attempting to have a normal, catch-up conversation and was actually managing to handle it without digressing or wondering off; the only really detailed conversations he had anymore were with Sally while he slept, since his new friends in the village didn't speak about anything other than school and gaming and, in addition to this, none of them knew about his past and he didn't _want _them to know. The knowledge that the only person he really spoke to was a ghost of his former best friend caused him to question his own sanity. "What about you? How are you doing? How's life?"

Charlotte became slightly pink, giggled and grinned, placing her hand on the back of her head in a comical, but flustered fashion. "Well…actually, I'm engaged."

Anthony's eyes widened slightly. In that instant, he realised just how little he knew about this woman that he had agreed to meet up with; he didn't even know that she had a boyfriend. That wasn't too shocking considering the only ties that they had to each other were the death of Anthony's friends and the fact that they both now knew Jessie Walker – the well-known killer and psychopath. He also felt extremely bad about enjoying the feeling of Charlotte's chest when he arrived at the café before; that chest belonged to another guy and he had blushed and indirectly touched it; his reputation as a gentleman was now tainted.

"Wow…really?" he asked, genuinely interested.

Charlotte giggled again. "Yeah. His name is Brandon. We met a few years ago and just…fell in love."

The pretty blond glanced down to her hand, gazing at her engagement ring with a mixture of pride and adoration; the diamond wasn't too large, but it still must've required a huge amount of money. This Brandon must've had a well-paying job and really wanted to treat Charlotte well by giving her a ring that size.

"He proposed two months ago…and I'm really happy." Suddenly, Charlotte snapped up and stared at Anthony for a moment and then blushed more dramatically. "Oh, I'm sorry! I just started going on about myself! That's not why I asked you to meet me!"

Anthony tilted his head and knew that the question which would change the course of their relaxed conversation had to be asked, despite his joy as to how the meeting was going so far. "Out of curiosity…why _did _you ask me to meet with you? You appeared almost desperate to meet with me."

The young woman took a deep breath and exhaled, a more serious expression on her face now; Anthony knew that she didn't want to meet with him simply to catch up. She wouldn't have travelled all the way to him if it wasn't anything important; this stern expression caused Charlotte to appear to look more like a real policewoman – it was nice for Anthony to see her like this. It allowed him to know that she didn't simply take on her job with the usual childish attitude that she displayed so often; she was caring the previous year, but she never showed that she could be anything other than a delicate woman.

"The reason why I asked you to meet with me…" She began. "…is because I've been reading into Jessie's files."

Anthony's heart skipped a beat. He knew that it would be about Jessie; there would be no other reason why Charlotte would go to see Anthony.

"I decided to look into her case and hospital files since I found out that she escaped from the institute. I wanted to think about reasons why she would escape, other than just not wanting to be there; I may not have known her very well, but I can assume that she wouldn't simply kill her psychiatrist because she wanted to leave the hospital." Charlotte placed both of her hands on the table and interlocked them around her cup of tea. "It seems as though despite the fact that she had forgotten everything that she had done, which I'm sure you're aware of, she kept telling her psychiatrists about a boy that she couldn't remember. A boy who she loved."

Anthony instantly knew that she was talking about Jeff. Jeff was the last person to see Jessie before she died – which Anthony had just always assumed since it would make perfect sense – so her remembering him and only him would be perfectly logical; one _would_ remember the last thing that occurred before their memories were erased, if anything. Although, that didn't mean that it didn't get on Anthony's nerves that Jessie had remembered the killer and not her friends or family – the ones who loved and cared for her before she became a killer.

Anthony frowned, not knowing how to react to this information; he may have hated Jessie by this point in time, but that didn't mean that her not even being able to recall him or Sally when she could still remember Jeff the Killer didn't cause him aggravation and distress. The urge to punch the table had to be sustained while in front of Charlotte and the villagers around them – they had been staring at the two young adults enough for one day and he would have to live with them judging him for the rest of his life, or at least while he still lived there, if he caused a scene now. He could punch the invisible walls when in his dream with Sally; it wouldn't get all of his anger out, but it would help.

"I was wondering if you had any idea who that boy could be." Charlotte couldn't quite see the frustration in Anthony's eyes, but she could tell that he had reacted to hearing Jessie's name; however, she would have to continue with her questions regardless. This was the whole reason she came here. "Was there anyone who Jessie had a crush on that you knew of? You were her closest friend, even if she might be reluctant to tell another boy who she liked at the time – you know how girls are. If you know anything, it would be very useful for the authorities so that we could get a lead as to where she is."

A sigh escaped Anthony's mouth. "You think that she could have run to the guy she loved since she could recall him? Did she even remember who he was or his name?"

"No. She only remembered memories of him and how she felt about him." The blond relaxed her shoulders slightly, feeling relieved that Anthony was actually complying. "She doesn't remember what he looked like or his name. She couldn't even remember his voice."

That's what Anthony thought.

It was so clear as to who Charlotte was referring to and both he and Sally knew it. His ghost friend had yet to actually try and make contact with Anthony in any way during this conversation; this meant that she simply wanted to watch and thought that she knew what Anthony was going to say or do. The teen knew that she wanted for him to keep quiet about what he knew; he and Sally had been the only two to know what had happened between Jeff the Killer and Jessie Walker and they were planning on keeping it that way. All Anthony wanted to do was move on and leave all of that behind with his fragmented school mate. He wasn't planning to do anything different.

Charlotte's eyes drifted to the floor as she gave a grim smile. "You know…some people think that Jessie was in love with Jeff the Killer."

Anthony jolted.

Charlotte noticed this reaction and continued. "They say that she was so obsessed with him and his way of killings that she must have been infatuated with him. It would make sense, right?"

Regrettably, Anthony had no idea how to react to this implication; the facial expression that Charlotte was making wasn't one of the happy-go-lucky, girly, giddy woman he had been speaking to a moment ago. There was something menacing about her smile – something that said that she knew more than she let on. Anthony was questioning in his head whether the reason she brought the topic up was because she actually knew the answers to her own questions, but someone as kind and caring as Charlotte, who always displayed exactly as she was feeling, couldn't possibly be implying what he thought she must have been implying.

"I guess…it would make sense." This was all that Anthony could come out with. The woman opposite him chuckled.

"Well, some people believe that when Jeff the Killer stopped killing in America – mainly Florida – that he had come to England because of all of the unexplained murders happening here. They dismissed that theory when Jessie was caught as a Jeff-copycat, but it still makes sense." Charlotte pointed at Anthony and leaned over the café table. "Jessie seemed to have had a reason for killing Jonathan – the boy in your old school – and his group of friends, since out of the people she knew who died, they had to most violent deaths; I think that's when she started killing. I think that Jeff the Killer came to Oxford started killing and then corrupted Jessie. She liked researching killers, right? She _must've _come across Jeff in her research. She could have been interested in him and eventually fell in love with him. That would make the most sense."

Anthony's heart-rate was increasing dramatically. He couldn't understand how someone as innocent-looking as Charlotte – even if she was a policewoman – could figure out the whole turn of events in such a short amount of time by simply looking at Jessie's files. He started to panic on the inside.

"H-How can you know that? How can you know that Jeff was in England or that he met Jessie? He may not have."

Charlotte leaned back in her chair. "Judging by your reaction, I'm guessing that I'm right."

The only thing that the two of them could now hear in the café was the noise of others eating, drinking and mumbling, although Anthony was sure that he couldn't even hear all of that. He felt Sally's ghostly hand hold onto his arm, meaning that she didn't know what to do either; the two living and deceased teens were stuck.

Charlotte continued. "I didn't figure it out. It wasn't me…but the instantly that I did, I realised on my own that the only person alive who could tell me whether that theory was correct of not was the last survivor of Jessie's murder-spree. Which is you, Anthony…so tell me, am I right?"

All that he could do was bow his head and exhaled the most harming exhale of his life; he could barely breathe knowing that someone knew his secrete, especially a policewoman. She could arrest him for holding information from the police force and lying to them when the questioned him the previous year. The fear was over-whelming him.

"W…Who else…knows?" He stuttered, holding back the urge to run away from the café and keep going until he reached the furthest parts of the country, far away from Charlotte, the village and the conversation.

"Just me…and a Jeff the Killer fanatic that I happen to know. You don't need to worry. We're not planning on telling anyone. I didn't come here to arrest you."

Anthony raised his head and gave her a puzzled face. "Wait…then why did you bring me here?"

Charlotte took a deep breath. "I came here to ask you to help me find the two of them."

Once again, Anthony's heart stopped.

"Help me find Jessie Walker and Jeff the Killer."


	6. Chapter 5: Lost and Found

**Hello people of the web :)**

**I'm back with a new chapter and some small news as well. It's about my story writing.**

**I know that I have two stories going on at the moment, but I am planning a couple of new ones. I won't give away what they're about and I won't be uploading any of them until I get to a certain part in this story and 'CreepyPasta's Nightmare' either, just so that I feel confident enough to finish the two of them _and _the new stories - I'm not the most well-known person when it comes to finishing my stories. I'm just in the planning mode for both of them now and I don't want to get into anything new just yet - especially with my school coursework and exams.  
**

**Also, I know that this is unrelated, but THE WALKING DEAD STARTS AGAIN SOON!**

**My sexy Daryl shall be on my T.V. screen once again...*drools***

**Anyway, that's my news :)**

**I'll leave you guys to read and I'm going to go and do my homework like a good little girl ;) **

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**Lost and Found**

"Laughing...Jack?" Jessie whispered inquisitively as she stood in shock as the clown demon before her got to put his back straight and grinned at her from afar.

His teeth were as sharp and dangerous as a shark's and his eyes were a bright white, with his pupils taking up practically no space at all in his eye socket. Staring into them seemed to be perilous to the young, female killer for some unexplained reason in her mind, so she avoided it.

"Yes, my young dear?" He responded to her without her even displaying the want or need for him to; she jolted when he spoke. He joyful and yet sinister voice sent chills up Jessie's spin.

Despite the fact that she had no idea what Laughing Jack could have possibly been - other than a sick figment of her own over-active imagination educed by her still still reacting to some of the drugs that they gave her at the hospital a few days before she left - and that he was creepy beyond belief to her, she wasn't too afraid of him. The way that the boys who attacked her ran away from him in fear wasn't understood by Jessie; he wasn't anything too extraordinary to her at all. Sure, she understood that a clown appearing out of nowhere and laughing like a maniac was one way to scare people off, but Jessie herself wasn't too effected by it and she had no idea why.

She couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen something like this scene before; she felt as though she had seen the impossible before - or a creature like this Laughing Jack character before - but she couldn't put her finger on when. Having amnesia was so troublesome in situations such as this. She also couldn't shake the feeling that she had heard the name 'Laughing Jack' before; it could have been in a passing conversation, but she had heard his name before.

She suddenly wondered if the reason that this creature knew her name and she thought that she had heard _his_ name somewhere before was because they had actually met before she had suffered form her sever memory loss.

Gently, the black and white clown wondered over to her as she remained in her contemplative state, his lightly healed boots making small tap sounds as he took each step; he stopped a couple of meters away from her, his frightening grin still plastered on his paper-white face.

"Are you alright?" He asked with a whimsical tone to his voice, like a child at an amusement park. "Those guys didn't hurt you, right?"

Jessie's large, brown eyes stared up at the demon before her as she simply nodded and held herself, suddenly feeling cold; it was as if as Laughing Jack approached her, the air conditioning had been turned up to full blast and she was left with no way of heating herself up - although, she was adamant that the almost destroyed building she was in didn't have a working air conditioning system within its walls. She thought for a moment that the 'hipster' who took her there made terrible taste and must have thought that she was really tacky to bring her to a place like that for them to - as Jessie phrased it in her mind - 'get down with it.'

"Good." Jack replied with happily. "That really was a close call for you. Although, I would've expected you to murder those guys with no problems."

Jessie jolted, her eyes widening. The clown in front of her knew that she was a killer and knew that she had great abilities when it came to killing - even she didn't know that latter statement until that moment - although, she should have guessed when she killed her psychiatrist before running away from the hospital. This must have meant that he knew him before she was taken to the hospital a year ago.

She awkwardly glanced to the ground and muttered to Laughing Jack. "Well...I guess I had a bit of trouble there...I'm not that good at fighting off a bunch of guys who want to rape me."

A bellowing and echoing laugh escaped Jack's mouth as Jessie snapped her neck back up to look at him once more, slightly concerned about his reason for laughing that loudly and that menacingly.

"Well, that's not what BEN told me about you! He said that you were amazing at killing single people or groups, but you were just getting used to being a killer."

Jessie winced. "BEN...?"

Laughing Jack glanced down at her, his expression becoming more serious. "You've lost your memory, right?"

The now curious girl nodded and stayed on her guard - even though she didn't know how much damage she could do to a creature like Laughing Jack. She felt the need to protect herself all of a sudden, keeping in mind that she still had her knife in her hoody pocket if she needed it; it was clear that this clown at least knew _about _her from before she went to the hospital and while she was turning into a murderer, but this was clearly his first time meeting her, since he seemed to be going on information given to him by other people about her. Jessie wondered who these other people were and how they knew her from before she became a killer - she wondered if maybe the guy that she was looking for knew this clown.

"Well..." Jack put his hands on his hips in a more sassy than serious position. "BEN is the only monster from the apartments that you really spoke to before you were going to come and join us there."

"What do you mean? Apartment? Monster?" Jessie queried.

Jack lifted up his finger and placed it in front of Jessie. "Ah, all in good time, my dear. That's not what I came here to tell you." He straightened up and took a deep breathe. "Jessie Walker, now that you have escaped from the mental institution that you were forced into, by murdering your psychiatrist and have now just proven that you would like to kill again by taking that guy who was about to attack you here, I, Laughing Jack, am now inviting you to join the group of murderers and monsters at what we like to call...the apartments!"

Jessie tilted her head in confusion.

"But wait! There's more!" Before Laughing Jack could let Jessie respond, he placed his freakishly large hand around her shoulder, letting his dark claws rest on her and pulled her in uncomfortably close. "The monsters at the apartments already know you because a certain member of our family had discovered you to be a killer long ago, before you were taken away to that mad house and grew that delicious ! Now that you've recovered and are back on tack with your killing, I'm sure that they would want you back by their side!"

Jessie - who was squashed against Jack's side, close to being unable to breathe - jolted and pulled herself away from him, causing Jack to become slightly disappointed due to her clear dislike of close contact with him; Jack may have been a monster, but he was a people-person too and he loved close contact with others, human or fellow monster. "Wait! Is this person a guy?! And does he have a slightly croaky voice, like he smokes?!"

Laughing Jack grinned even harder. "Yes, he is a guy and he does have a croaky voice...and he cares about you a huge amount, Jessie."

She had done it.

She had found a lead to the person that she wanted to find aeend she had only been gone from the hospital for a day; she had accomplished what she was so desperate to do in such a short amount of time due to purely luck and coincidence. The urge to jump for joy was creeping in and she wanted to hug this clown before her as tightly as she could manage and cry to him with genuine happiness and excitment.

She smiled as tears began to form in her eyes. "I...I've found him...I've found him..."

Jack gives her a more sweet smile, concealing his teeth. "Oh? You were looking for him."

"Yes.." She responded quietly. "I've forgotten who he is or what he was to me...but I remember being in love with him and I wanted to find him. It's why I escaped from the hospital."

"Wow..." Jack whistled, clearly impressed. "He'll be so flattered. that won't be good for his ego."

Jessie glanced up at her new savour and asked "Do you think...you could tell me more about him?"

"Sure thing." He responded happily. "What would you like to know?"

Jessie felt coy now that she knew this demon was a good guy and wasn't going to harm her; she forgot about the knife in her pocket for a moment and relaxed her body. "Well, his name would be a good place to start."

"Sure." Laughing Jack replied. "You're going to be shocked though."

"Why?" Jessie asked innocently.

"Well...have you ever heard of Jeff the Killer?"

Jessie froze.

"Wait...what?"

~:~

Jeff was laid down on his bed, his hands behind his head and his eyes staring at the ceiling; he hadn't bothered to change out of his blood-soaked clothes that he walked into the apartment building with, meaning that his once, deep blue bed covers, pillow cases and sheets were covered in the dark, scarlet blood of his city victim. He wasn't too concerned with making the bed a mess - he had done the same thing every time he came back from killing someone in the city for months and BEN had simply stopped scolding him about it since he could tell that Jeff wasn't going to stop anyway. Plus, it wasn't as if BEN minded the smell of blood and human organs in the room - he actually thought that it made the room feel more like a crime scene, which was calming for him, but for arguments sake, he wasn't about to tell Jeff that.

This is how the killer spent most of his time at the apartments when he wasn't walking by the lake nearby, on his own, or he wasn't yelling at the other monsters that lived with him. There wasn't much else that he wanted to do other than sleep, even though dreaming wasn't pleasant for him; every dream he had was either a flashback of something that Jessie and he had experienced together - pleasant or not - or it was a repeating image of the moment where Jessie was about to jump off of the building they were both on the night that Jessie was taken away from him and snatched away from his life - the only thing that he even remotely liked about his dreams was that, at least Jessie was there, by his side, which was a step up from him being awake.

Jeff wasn't even sure how he felt about her anymore. He had spent the last year hating her for what she had done to him by trying to kill herself and leave him alone like that; she had promised him that she would always be there for him and said that she would stay with him forever, and he got his hopes up, thinking that she was the one person who's word he could trust - that wouldn't _lie_ to him - but instead, she said that she couldn't handle the killer life-style, failed to kill her best friends, Sally and Anthony, and decided that she would rather kill herself than live with him and be a murderer like she was destined to be. He couldn't help but despise her for making him believe her words and then stabbing him right in the heart.

Although, for the last few months, he had began to realise certain aspects of how he actually felt. Despite the fact that he knew how much he hated the thought of her coming near him and trying to be close to him again, it was also all that he wanted in this world. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, touch her. He wanted to be with her again, but he felt disgusted at the thought at the same time. He couldn't figure out how he actually felt about her.

Did he hate her or did he still love her?

KNOCK KNOCK

Just as Jeff was hoping that he could just drift off into another dream about Jessie and him, BEN peeked through the door and glanced over to him, acting like a scared child about to ask their parents for something that they know they won't get; the gamer wondered inside of the room and headed straight for Jeff's bed, standing before it when he reached Jeff as he stayed lied down and pretended as of his friend hadn't just walked in - he wasn't in the mood to be talking to anyone right now, not even his best friend.

"Hey." The blond mumbled reluctantly. "How are you doing, Jeff?"

He received no answer. Jeff wasn't up for idle chit-chat these days and didn't answer questions like that anymore - he simply didn't know how to answer them. He wasn't sure what he felt with regard to Jessie or his own well-being. BEN wasn't shocked that he didn't get an answer to his question - he hadn't received any kind of conversation with his best friend for months now - but that didn't mean that he was happy about the fact that Jeff was clearly ignoring him.

"You're covered in blood." The child looked around the room, wondering if Jeff had gotten any crimson liquid on anything else in the shared bedroom. Nothing else had even a drop of blood on it. That was good. He may have liked the smell of blood, but blood-stains were difficult to get out of sheets or clothes. "So's your bed. What the hell happened out there in the city?"

Still no answer.

The teenage killer wondered why BEN was even bothering to try and get any kind of speech out of him when he had seen the pattern for the last few months. He wasn't going to answer him whether he wanted him to or not.

BEN sighed. "Look, I came in here because Eyeless Jack and I were going to go out and make a quick kill. I know that you just came back from one, but that doesn't mean that you can't come with and have some fun. What do you say?"

There was still nothing but silence coming from Jeff.

BEN didn't expect him to want to come with them - he had only wanted to go and kill people by himself so that he could go crazy and simply do what needed to be done and come back to the apartments. He may have been losing himself to his actions, but he was certainly more organised and on the ball with his scheduling as a murderer than he ever was since Jessie left him. That was something that BEN and Slenderman had asked him to try and do, but now that he was actually doing it, BEN wanted him to go back to being clumsy and a complete mess with organisation.

The Link-lookalike didn't move an inch. He simply stood there, clenching his fists and wondering when his best friend would actually talk to him and treat him as if he was actually standing right in front of him. It felt to him as if whenever he was right in Jeff's face, speaking to him face-to-face, that Jeff wasn't seeing him at all - all that murderer could ever see was Jessie's face and it depressed him to the point of not wanting to speak.

He had supported their relationship in the beginning because he could see that Jeff clearly cared deeply for this girl - Jeff had never cared about anything before, so Jessie must've really meant something to him - and he could see that Jessie wanted to be a killer like Jeff, but he never thought in a million years that she would just leave Jeff and stay being a normal human and that she would want nothing more than to live a normal life again. Slender erasing her memory at least meant that she wouldn't have to live with the memory of killing her loved ones - even if she found out about her actions.

"You know..." BEN began. "I've been watching you for this whole year, Jeff. I've been trying my best to watch out for you and make sure that you're alright when all anyone else did was leave you alone. I think that I deserve for you to at least _look _at me."

Nothing changed. Jeff still stared up at the ceiling, trying to create the illusion that BEN wasn't actually there. This infuriated BEN all the more.

"I said...LOOK AT ME!"

Jeff didn't move an inch at BEN's outburst. Tears formed in the young killers eyes as he stared at the floor and let them fall.

He remembered the days when Jeff would listen to every word he said and looked him straight in the eyes when he spoke to him; Jeff had always been the type of person to always want to make his point clear and his most famous way of doing that was looking the person that he was speaking to in the eye and telling them straight up what he was saying and what he thought. BEN always knew how Jeff felt and what he was thinking, but nowadays he knew nothing about how Jeff felt or what he thought. It was as if all of the killer's confidence was gone and he was nothing but a shell of his former self.

It was killing BEN to see his best friend like that.

"All you do is sit there, thinking. You won't even look at me, let alone talk to me. You're not acting like the Jeff that I used to know. All I want...all I want.." BEN shut his eyes and shouted. "ALL I WANT IS MY BEST FRIEND BACK!"

He ran out of the room, crying hysterically. Jeff stayed in the exact same position, not showing any inkling of caring that his best friend had just been reduced to tears and practically run away from him - the wasn't the case at all. Of course he cared about BEN and how he felt, but at that moment, he couldn't show any signs of caring for anything other than Jessie - he couldn't help it. All of his energy was going towards filling in the gaps for when he wasn't with her - he knew that the gap would never be completely filled and that he would have to do this for the rest of his life and the only thing preventing him from killing himself was the pathetic thought that maybe, just maybe, he would see Jessie again.

Even if it was for an instant.

She could be released from her hospital one day and sent to live in the outside world like an ordinary person again, and then one day, when he was wondering around the city, he would see her, just walking around - maybe she would be meeting her new friends, or even trying to rekindle her friendship with Anthony, but she would be there nonetheless. If that happened, then at least he could see for her for a moment.

He was living for that moment.

One of the most distinct memories he had of Jessie wasn't an event that was significant in anyway, but it was something that allowed him to know that she cared about him and thought about him all the time - at least, that's what it seemed like.

The early morning after they first made love, just before he went to grab John and his friends to prepare her to kill them for what they did to her, he was getting dressed next to Jessie's bed, watching her dream happily she he threw his jeans on clumsily. He thought that she was adorable when she slept - her steady breathing mixed in with the creamy, chocolatey skin of hers and the slightly hints of early sunlight seeping through the curtains that shone on her made her look like an absolute angel. Maybe he should have seen the hint that she wasn't a killer then, but he didn't pay too much attention to that back then.

As he put his hoody on and placed his trusty kitchen knife into his pocket, completing his trademark outfit, he glanced over once more to his love, giving her one last stare before he was about to leave her house and take the next step in her killer-training. Before he could even leave the room he heard her gentle voice behind him.

"Jeff..."

He rotated, expecting her to be waking up and for him to be busted for trying to leave the house - he couldn't explain to her what he was doing since it would cause her to say that she didn't want to kill John and his friends, ruining the whole plan. Although, he was pleasantly surprised to see her in the exact same position that she was in when he was about to leave - she had been talking in her sleep.

She had been dreaming of him.

Jeff sighed softly and smiled sweetly at his lover in slumber. To him, she really was an angel.

He had no idea why she would fall for someone like him - he wasn't exactly what normal girls would consider attractive. His face and skin would make women turn the other way most of the time - unless they were prostitutes or slutty women who wanted a thrill and decided to gather that thrill by having sex with a famous killer. His personality was even uglier than this appearance; he became angry quickly and always succumbed to the worst kind of sins known to man without even blinking - not that he _could_ blink. Most people would run away from him considering who he was anyway, so human contact wasn't something that he was used to - unless it was as he was ripping them apart. He felt lucky that such a kind, caring, beautiful girl had actually found their way into his heart - as black as it was - and was someone who actually understood his need to kill and wanted to become a killer like him someday.

Instinct caused him to wonder quietly towards the bed and lean over and planted a small kiss on Jessie's forehead. A few moments later, he silently made his escape from her house and wondered away to grab John and his rapist buddies.

Every time Jeff thought about this memory, he either wanted to tear his surroundings apart and destroy everything in sight, or he wanted to curl up in a ball and bawl like a baby. Today, he was going to go for curling up in a ball. He had destroyed so much of the motel room he was in during his trip to the city that he didn't think that it was necessary for his recovery anymore.

He assumed the position and curled up, tears filling his eyes. His cries when he was upset rather than angry had recently become barely audible. He didn't know whether that was because he subconsciously didn't want anyone to hear him cry so that his reputation wouldn't be destroyed - even though his wasn't exactly the best reputation at the moment considering how he was acting towards his friends - or because he just didn't want anyone to help him because he knew that he was a lost cause.

He quietly sobbed to himself, knowing that he must have looked pathetic and was glad that no one was there, watching him.

"Jessie..." he mumbled. "I wish you were here...I miss you...I miss you..."


	7. Chapter 6: Those Who Believe

**Hello again!**

**So, here's another chapter for you all. This one took a while to write because I had to figure out what should actually happen in this one, but it's here now and I hope that you all enjoy it.**

**Also, I'm going to start a new thing in the authors notes of all of my stories - not just this one, but every single one of them. I'm going to start a new Q&amp;A segment in the notes. Basically, when I bring out a new chapter, in your reviews, you can ask me a question about the story or the characters or even me if you're curious as to who I am. I will answer every one that I get for that chapter in the authors notes of the next chapter. **

**I thought that it would be a fun new thing to try, so I'm going to see if you all want to try it out and see if it helps you understand the story or me a bit better :)**

**Anyway, if you have any questions that you want to try and ask, then go for it ;)**

**I'll let you read on anyway...**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

**Those Who Believe**

Anthony sat reluctantly in Charlotte's green Honda as they travelled up a suburban road, Anthony drinking a plastic, covered cup of coffee that they had collected a few moments before entering Aylesbury; they had been travelling for a couple of hours now – it would have been less if Charlotte didn't keep stopping for sweets along the way, devouring them as if her stomach was a bottomless pit – and Anthony had decided that his sleepiness required some caffeine every so often. He did wonder to himself how Charlotte had managed to stay so thin and gorgeous when she seemed to have such unhealthy eating habits.

During the journey, Charlotte was keeping up her happy-go-lucky persona, eating her candy like a child and humming to herself when silence covered the car; when there wasn't simply silence, the two spoke about the situation at hand and the policewoman got a grasp on what Anthony's stance was on the whole predicament that they were facing.

He had told her all about Jessie's relationship with Jeff and how she had to kill he family in order to be with him and leave the country to become a murderer like he was; he also told her about what John had done to her – which gathered a depressive and upsetting response from Charlotte to say the least – and how the event caused Jessie to jump on the murder-train, with Jeff by her side the entire journey, guiding her and corrupting her. He had just finished his coffee as he'd also just finished his explanation of how he had no idea how Jessie actually forgot her memories and what happened to her when she reached the hospital – of course he missed out on the part where Sally became a ghost in his head, since he didn't want her think he was crazy on top of someone who had lied to her a year ago. She seemed to understand why he had lied, but he still felt as though she could be angry about it deep inside; Anthony knew that he worried too much about these types of things, and he could feel Sally yelling at him to shut up inside of his head, but he couldn't help it. That was how he was.

"So…" Charlotte began as she chewed on a piece of chocolate. "You really don't know how she got to the hospital? Well, that would make sense since she was found there during your recovery in hospital."

Anthony gave a nod and mumbled softly, remembering the day after Sally's death with a small wince. "Yeah…"

The two were heading to see the person who figured out everything about Jeff and Jessie's relationship – who surprisingly was Charlotte's older brother by two years, Daniel Maypoles, or Dan for short, since his sister seemed to call him that. According to Charlotte, he had become something of a Jeff the Killer obsessive, collecting as much information as he could about Jeff and trying his best to track his movements – he had done so when the killer was in Oxford and had been for a few years now. The reason behind this dates back to his university days.

When he was a student in America, he was staying with his best friend one night after a large party; the boys had been best friends for a long time before university and travelled to America together since they didn't want to be apart after Secondary School. The two were quite drunk on the night of Dan's friends death from what Charlotte had told Anthony before making a joke about university life being like that for Anthony as well.

She continued to tell him that Dan woke up during the night in the living-room to hear a scream from his buddy's room and ran in. He saw what he was positive was Jeff the Killer hovering over his now dead friend, who's had his intestines falling out of his body and blood covering him. Before Dan could do anything or recover from his shock, Jeff ran out of the room and jumped out of the bathroom window. The police still haven't caught Jeff and he was determined to find him one way or another and make him pay for what he had done.

His family made him move back to England shortly after the event to finish university safely, away from the famous serial killer, and he never made enough money to take a long-term journey to the U.S. again, but he was still determined to find as much information on Jeff the Killer as he could and when he started killing in England, he was suddenly overjoyed and took that as a chance to gather more information about the killer.

Just as Charlotte had finished explaining all of this earlier in the journey, Anthony was full of questions, but after that, the policewoman began to ask _him _questions and his were never answered. Now seemed like a good enough time to be asking his questions, now that Charlotte had dies down with her explanations.

"So…how did Dan figure out about Jeff and Jessie's relationship?" He asked, not looking at the woman next to him, driving the car he was in.

"He never actually told me." She replied with. "He said that it was easy to figure out and when I called him yesterday and told him that you had confirmed his theory, he was over the moon."

Anthony leaned back in his seat. "Has he figured out what happened to Jessie when she was forced to go to the institute? Or even how she'd gotten there?"

"If he has, he hasn't told me. Considering his need for bragging when he achieves something, let's just say that if he had figured it out, he would have told me by now."

Anthony knew that he didn't know Dan well enough to make a judgement like that on him, so he couldn't argue against Charlotte.

As she answered one of his millions of questions, she began to pull the car over on the corner of a street, next to an apartment block; Anthony looked out of the car window at the building, noticing the expensive looking doors, shining windows that were clearly cleaned every day and the general expensive look of the place.

"Here we are." Charlotte smiled as she existed the car. Anthony couldn't look at her the same way after the day before, when her expression changed from her normal, childish demeanour to a sly and cunning facial expression. He didn't even know if her loving and caring actions were how she actually was, or whether she was actually someone who couldn't care less about people dying around her and she was simply putting up an act. He tried to ignore these thoughts as he exited the car and wondered up to the apartment building with Charlotte.

He noticed that she was looking up at it proudly. His caused Anthony to feel as though he should comment on the building. "So, this is where he lives? It's huge…"

Charlotte smiled at the teenager. "I know. Mamma and Papa paid for him to stay here. They wanted for him to be as comfortable as possible."

The blond child-like woman started heading towards the building, pulling Anthony's arm as she did so. Anthony had a quick thought, wondering if Charlotte's parents were rich - they must've been if they could afford to have their son stay in a place like this comfortably and travel from England to America, back to England again for his education. He guessed that when he wanted to go back to America, that was where they drew the line and refused to pay for it.

"Um…Charlotte. I can walk." The glasses-wearing teenager commented.

"I know." Charlotte replied joyfully. "But I'm really excited to see Dan again. Until this week, I hadn't seen him for nearly six months."

"Oh." Anthony said. "Are you two not that close?"

For the first time on the journey to see Dan, Charlotte paused her movements and stayed quiet for a reason other than the fact that she was eating; Anthony sensed that he had treaded on a sensitive topic. He winced at Charlotte's silence and suddenly, guilt made its way into his heart, causing it to ache.

The policewoman turned back to him and continued to smile, this time with a more motherly appearance. "Come on, Anthony. Let's go."

Anthony took a moment to admire Charlotte's suddenly elegant face, eyes widened and mouth slightly left open. Her eyes were shinning slightly in the sunlight, despite the low amount of light coming from the dulled sky; her lips were a rosy pink despite the fact that she wasn't wearing any make-up; her body was up straight and her chest was pushed outwards slightly, despite the fact that she wasn't even trying to do so. To Anthony, it was clear that he had spent the last couple of hours travelling with an angel.

"Yeah…let's go."

~:~

The inside of the apartment building was just as extravagant as the outside was; the walls were as purely white as Charlotte's sparkling teeth and the floors were a buffered, wooden masterpiece that had not a single scrape or mark upon it. The people who ran the place must have treated it with the utter-most respect and care, not allowing visitors to make a mess that they couldn't fix. Anthony couldn't help but feel out of place. He was a simple, middle-class kid who lived in a remote village, not a rich, upper-class duke who lived within the walls of an extravagant mansion, although he was sure that Dan was no duke either, even if his sister resembled a princess .

He entered the elevator with Charlotte and the two travelled to the top of the large building together, being the only ones in the elevator for the whole journey upwards. Charlotte used this moment of being alone with her teenage friend to explain some things about Dan that she would have preferred for people living or working in the hotel to not have to hear - she didn't want them knowing much about Dan's life or personality since it could damage the chances of them allowing him to stay there, no matter how much their parents were paying for him to be there.

"Just a quick warning." This caused Anthony to stare at her instead of the shiny, golden buttons of the elevator, as he was doing. "Dan can have a slight…attitude towards people he doesn't know…and people he does know…and children...and our parents...and me..."

"Youcan just say that he has an attitude towards everyone." Anthony chuckled slightly. "I'm used to that. Sally had a bit of an attitude, you know." The temptation for him to say 'has' instead of 'had' was so strong that Anthony almost had to bite his bottom lip to prevent himself from saying it; she may have been dead, but she wasn't gone.

He felt a gust of sudden wind attack his back, meaning that Sally was playfully hitting him in response to his statement; he saw Charlotte shiver slightly due to the small wind, but she didn't seem to question where the sudden wind came from - the let relief pass through Anthony as he silently exhaled.

"Really?" Charlotte asked. "She seemed to be a nice girl. She showed no attitude whatsoever."

Anthony chuckled once more. "Trust me. She had the biggest attitude that I'd ever seen."

The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing a hallway with the same white halls and shining, wooden floors that the reception of the hotel had; the palace was completely covered in sparkles and shining from the cleanliness that the staff clearly worked extremely hard to preserve. Anthony marvelled at the spotless hallway, as Charlotte stared at him, smirking, as if this were her own place and she was extremely proud of it. There must have been some pride as to how rich her parents were that she felt, despite the fact that she seemed to not really talk about their wealth too much.

She began to wonder down the hall as Anthony followed, right to the end of the hallway and then turning left and then right, eventually ending up at the end of the hall. The number of the door was 322 and Anthony wondered how many rooms there were in this hotel. It didn't seem big enough to hold over 300 rooms around the hotel, no matter how tall it did appear to be from the outside – it seemed to be a dream hotel that could hold an impossible amount of rooms. Charlotte knew that the rooms were as big and grand as people would assume and because she had been to the building before many times, her reactions to it wasn't like a normal, middle class citizen – much like Anthony's.

The blond woman pulled a key out from her shirt pocket and placed it into the golden key hole – Anthony wondered if the gold was real or not, but it wouldn't have surprised him if it were. She turned the key and opened the door carefully and slowly, not making any noise while wondering in; her heels softly clicked on the floor, but the noise was soothing rather than shocking. She took a few quiet steps inside, Anthony following her lead.

Once they were both inside and the door was shut, Anthony's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open. He laid his bright, hazel peepers on a whole living-room – living up to the hotels large stature – covered in pictures, photographs, newspaper articles, internet articles, documents and many more things based around and about Jeff the Killer and Jessie Walker. Some of them were stuck on the wall and some of them were laid on the floor, but everywhere you looked, there was something to do with either Jeff the Killer or Jessie Walker. Other than that, there were only empty food packets, dirty coffee mugs and soda cans on the floor; Charlotte cringed at the messiness.

"Sorry." She stated genuinely. "My dear brother doesn't know what cleaning up is. He never did, even when we were kids."

She proceeded to stepping over the many objects on the floor, her high heels finally making the angry, clanking noise that Anthony had expected them to be making as they walking through the wooden-floored hallway; during their journey through the hotel, she had been trying to hold herself back and be as polite and normal as she could be, but the instant she saw the mess, her facial expression became an agitated one, reminding Anthony of his encounter with her at the café, when she completely changed personalities. The teen really did wonder what she was really like and whether she was actually the sweet, kind person that she makes herself out to be.

Anthony followed her through the junk-filled living-room, making his way towards the bedroom that Charlotte was walking towards; she slammed the door open and began to yell, using a screeching voice that Anthony had never heard come out of her before.

"Daniel Thomas Maypoles! Get out here!"

The geeky teen peered through to the bedroom and noticed a man sitting on the edge of an un-made bed, the room filled with papers and photographs just like the living-room. He had chestnut brown hair, similar to Sally's, but it was much shorter and un-brushed; he had a rough, unshaven face, bags under his eyes and a mean look in his face as he looked up for one moment. He held laptop on his lap, which he was rapidly typing on before the two wondered into the room, but stopped when they entered; he showed them acknowledgement and then began to type again.

"What do you want, Char?" he responded with as his fingers moved with quick speed across his keyboard. By the way he addressed Charlotte and vice-versa, Anthony assumed that this man was Dan Maypoles; he had seen the way that Sally spoke to her brothers and the way that these two spoke to one another was definitely the way that a brother and sister spoke to each other in his eyes. He had never had sibling, but he could take a guess as to how they spoke to one another.

"Why didn't you clean up?" Charlotte continued. "I told you that I'd be bringing Anthony to your place today and asked you to tidy up this mess."

"I never agreed to anything." The frustrated man stated. "Give me a minute. I'm on a forum."

The policewoman sighed and turned back to Anthony. "Sorry. He liked to go on Jeff the Killer forums and see if people have seen him in the area or not."

The glasses-wearing boy didn't speak. He wasn't sure what to say to the situation; Dan seemed to be quite rough in comparison to Sally – and Sally's mean attitude was what he thought would save him from not being offended by Dan's – and this bothered him. He didn't understand how in the world someone could have a worse attitude than Sally's, considering she became angry and hit him across the face one time for eating one of her chocolate bars, thinking that it was his.

"_I'm not that bad…"_

He heard Sally's faded voice in the back of his head. On occasions, the ghost in his brain would speak to him and comment, but this didn't happen very often as it sometimes harmed Anthony's mind and gave him a terrible migraine if she did it too much. He smiled just slightly so that Charlotte and Dan wouldn't notice and think that he was a strange person – the last thing he needed was for someone as moody as Dan to think weirdly of him.

Charlotte continued to talk to the teen. "Dan claims that he has a lead to Jeff in Florida, but doesn't really know where exactly."

"It isn't a claim!" Dan shouted. "It is a real lead!"

His sister ignored him. "He thinks that Jessie could have run after him and that's why she ran away from the hospital. She must have remembered him according to his theory."

Anthony finally spoke. "How does he know this? Why does her have this theory?"

Dan answered in an aggravated tone – which seemed to be his only tone - not taking his eyes off of his laptop screen or stopping his fingers from moving across the keyboard.

"_He _has this theory because she copied his killings when she went on her killing-spree. She researched him like crazy and must have fallen in love with him or something. If she was that obsessed with him, then it isn't too unrealistic to believe that she would kill again and escape to America to find him. If they really did meet while he was doing his killings in your home town – which you have already confirmed – then he could have easily told her where he lived."

"Plus, you told me yesterday at the café that she was killing her family and friends to go and live with him in the U.S., so he must have told her where he lived." The police sister contributed, without knowing that her statement was the one statement that was mentioned that wasn't true; Jeff never told Jessie where he lived when plotting for her to live with him.

"That does make sense…" Anthony mumbled.

"So…" Charlotte "What do you think? Do you wanna come with us to find them?"

Dan's brown eyes wondered up from his laptop screen for a moment, waiting for his answer; from what he had acted like, he didn't seem too bothered by Anthony's presence, but the fact that he was showing interest in what Anthony said, displayed that he was at least _slightly _concerned as to whether Anthony stated that he wanted to join their cause or not. Charlotte was staring at Anthony with such hope and compassion that he didn't feel as though he could say no to her – but this wasn't about whether they both wanted him to say yes or not. It was about whether he could face this again.

It was easy for Charlotte to go after Jeff the Killer because she hadn't been directly affected by it – except for her brother becoming a shut in because of the murderer – and Dan was determined to find him, so he had no problem going after him, but for Anthony, it wasn't going to go slong with it that easily. Jessie – the only girl that he had ever loved – had been taken away by Jeff the Killer and he wanted nothing more than for him to die a painful death a year before, but he knew that there was no point in wishing death upon someone, for it wouldn't solve the problem of Jessie being corrupted and being gone.

He had no idea whether he could face Jessie again. She was the one who killed his friends and who had let Sally die – and he would never forgive her for that. In all honesty, all he wanted to do if he ever saw her again was beat her to a pulp and hope that she could choke on her own blood, so him going on a hunt to find her would only cause those feelings of hostility to build up and cause problems. The same would go for if he saw Jeff.

He had to be sure that if he went after them, it would end this whole ordeal.

The only way for that to happen would be for him to kill them both…

Anthony winced.

He hadn't realised it before, but killing the two of them would be easy. Jeff's place is likely to be the only place where the killer relaxes, and with Jessie there with him, he would most likely be able to simply relax and not worry about anyone coming to get him – considering no one had found his hide out yet, it must have been secure and he must have felt smug about that. If the two of them were off guard, then simply slipping away from Charlotte and Dan would not take a lot of effort and maybe grabbing a knife and…

"Anthony?" The boy jolted and stared at Charlotte, who seemed concerned. "Are you alright?"

The teen inhaled and exhaled before saying "I'm great…and do you know why?"

Dan peered at him with curiosity and Charlotte worryingly asked "Why?"

Anthony smirked. "I'm going with you…I'll help you find them."


	8. Chapter 7: Seeking

**Chapter Seven**

**Seeking**

Jessie and Laughing Jack proceeded to walking together towards a desolated, deserted and damaged dock on the other side of London, overlooking the Thames; the clown demon had told Jessie that in order for her to see Jeff and to meet him where he was, they would need to head somewhere that was deserted, so that they could travel in peace, without causing a scene. Jessie assumed that they would be heading over to America – she knew where Jeff lived since she had seen the news just before she escaped the hospital and it stated that his hide out must've been in the U.S. – by stealing a boat or maybe even a plane, so she followed blindly. Theft wasn't the most horrific crime that she could have committed at this point, so she wasn't too fussed by the idea of the two of them stealing anything.

The reached a dark alleyway that led to the port. The murderous girl could hear the water's waves gently flowing through the river and could smell the salty scent that she recognised as a rivers or the ocean - she couldn't remember ever going to one, but it felt nostalgic to her for some reason. It was amazing for her to be outside and feel the fresh, London air brush her milky-chocolate skin as she took in the natural air of the river coming up before her..

Jack took the lead as he continued to give Jessie a full explanation as to who Jeff actually is and what he was like; he knew that since she couldn't remember his attitude or his aggressive way of going about things, that she would need a run-down so that she wasn't too surprised when she met him. Despite his love for her, he was adamant that when they were a couple a year ago, he still had an attitude towards her, despite the fact that he didn't want top hurt her. He had aggression problems no matter who he spoke to, so the girl he loved shouldn't be any different.

"So make sure that you don't mention fires, doctors or bullies to him. He'll go a tad bit crazy. Although, the 'doctors' part may be slightly difficult for you, considering where you've been for the past year." His sharp, dark finger pointed upwards as he made his points. "Also, he can be a tiny bit moody when he's woken up, so make sure not to wake him up unless it's an emergency, but then get ready for him to shout at you for it."

Jessie jogged slightly to keep up with her new clown friend and walked by his side; his tall legs made it hard to catch up with him even when he gently walked without meaning to be quick. He was around twice her size, so when she glanced up at him with her large, dark eyes, he seemed to be giant. "From what you've told me, he seems to be a bit quick to anger."

Jack's laugh echoed through the darkened alley. The light at the end of the alleyway that led to the river dock was close now and Jessie would be glad when she got out of the darkness and stepped into the light. "Yeah, he can be…but you seem to have brought the best out of him when you were together. At least, that's what I heard."

Jessie blushed. She still hadn't gotten used to the idea of Jeff the Killer being her former lover, but she still couldn't help but be slightly embarrassed when speaking about him. "Did you hear that from him?"

Jack hesitated with his answer for a moment. "Well, actually, I heard it from BEN – you know, the guy that I told you about who helped you two out during your relationship?"

Jessie nodded. "Yeah, I remember you telling me about him. He seems like a nice person."

"He is. He's great…and he's Jeff's best friend."

Jessie lowered her head and stared at the ground as she walked next to the giant of a killer beside her; she wondered how she couldn't have figured out that Jeff the Killer was the man that she has fallen in love with when she went on her killer spree. It seemed so obvious now that she thought about it. According to what the reports said about her life before she began to kill, she was a normal girl except for her killers research, however her old friend Anthony had said in a report that she never admired or looked up to the murderers that she looked into, meaning that the speculation that she began to kill because she admired Jeff made no sense.

Jack had told her that Jeff had reached Britain and began his holiday of British kills for no particular reason; he snuck away from their home and decided to go on a holiday without asking their landlord - which he apparently, got him into a bit of trouble. He had chosen Jessie as one of his new victims, but the night that he creeped into her house, he tried to, but he couldn't kill her. The only explanation was that she was a killer just like he was and he began to train her to be a murderer when figuring this out. Hearing the actual story made sense to her and allowed her to realise that she wasn't just some copy-cat killer like the press made her out to be – she was a prodigy of one of the most known and feared killers in America.

After they had begun their training, Jack had told her, the two of them began to gain romantic feelings for one another and they became closer as the days went by; it was all piecing itself together in Jessie's mind, despite the fact that she couldn't remember a single thing about it, except for a few blurred memories of Jeff where she couldn't recognise his face. The one thing that Jack hadn't told her, probably from lack of time until they reached the dock, was _why_ she had lost her memories and how she ended up at the hospital. She wanted to ask, but before she could, they had walked through the light at the end of the alleyway and wondered through to the haven.

Once they were through and were standing on the harbour, Jack turned left and right, making sure that no one was around; luckilynfor him, the area was completely deserted, causing him to smile, displaying his monstrous teeth. The wooden floor beneath the two killers stood before an array of different types of speed boats and mini, rescue boats; the midnight moon shone on the dock not nearly as much as the lights hanging on the street lamps were lighting up the area, but Jessie preferred the moonlight - it allowed her to stay hidden in the shadows with Laughing Jack, but shone enough light so that she could see. A cool wind blew through the air and its smooth whistled, displaying the silence in the area, let Jack know that Jessie and he were completely alone and there were not any voices around for at least half a mile.

"Alright. Perfect." he commented as he rubbed his clawed hands together.

Jessie glanced up at him once again. "So, are we going to steal one of the boats or something? Maybe a smaller one that we don't draw too much attention to ourselves as we sail off?"

Once again, Jack's laugh echoed through the whole area, bouncing off of the walls of the boats. "No, Jessie. We're not. That would take us too long and we would not be travelling in comfort. There are quicker ways to get to places when you're a monster."

The demon clown clicked his fingers and suddenly, the giant, black and white, stripy Jack-in-a-box that he appeared in initial, when he saved Jessie from the group of rapists appeared and the lid gently opened, playing the light tune of Pop Goes the Weasel, just like a giant music box without the spinning figurine on the inside. Jessie stared in wonder at the box as it moved closer to the two of them over the river, tilting slightly towards them.

"Wow…" she whispered to herself quiet enough that Jack didn't hear her.

"This is our method of transportation for today." he placed his large hands on his hips proudly, knowing that Jessie was unable to see many of the wonders of the monsters powers before she decided to not be a killer anymore. Even if her memories hadn't been lost, she would have had the same reaction while looking at his special box because she didn't know all of the abilities of the friends that Jeff lived with back in the States.

"Wait..." Jessie stated as she turned to face him, taking her midnight eyes away from the magical box. "What do you mean?"

"This is the way that we're going to get to Jeff." Jack took a couple of steps forward and began to gently stroke the Jack-in-the-Box, caressing it as if it were a woman. "If we jump into this thing, it will take us to Jeff."

Jessie gave the clown a confused look. "Uh...look, um, Laughing Jack...I know that you're some kind of magical clown thingy, but it's impossible to travel through a box across the world. Do you know how far America is from here?"

Jack chuckled. "How do you think I saved you from those boys?"

Jessie paused and realised that he was correct. He did appear from the box when the boys ran away from her - the only reason that they ran off was because it seemed almost impossible for Jack to exist with how he made his entrance and they didn't know what was to come. For some reason, she calmly stated, maybe because the scene of the impossible had been known to her before. Honestly, Jessie knew that she couldn't expect to be around ordinary things from now on or that she hadn't in the past while knowing Jeff; she was travelling with a demon, killer clown and had found out that she used to be the lover of a murderer who turned her into a killer - reality had flown out of the window.

"Well...I guess-." she began, but was interrupted by Jack lifting her up and holding her in his strong arms. "Ah!"

He carried her bridal style towards the box as she uncomfortably wriggled around in his striped arms; her face became red as she realised that she had never been carried by a boy like this before - to her recollection at the very least. It felt nice to be protected and to be touched by someone for once. During her time at the hospital, no one wanted to go near her because of her past. She went a year without being touched by anyone except for the doctors who examined her every other day; the only piece of human contact that she received was when she killed her psychiatrist, as she held her when she slowly stopped breathing in her arms. It felt amazing to be able to have affectionate contact with someone for the first time that she could remember.

She was certain that Jeff probably treated her like this when they were a couple as well, but she couldn't remember that; it made her feel down to know that she wouldn't be able to recall anything about her relationship with Jeff when she saw him again. She wished that she could just remember what they were like and remember something other than how she felt about him and small, blurred memories of things that he has said; she wanted to start again with him and have the relationship that had been taken away from them a year ago. She wanted to start anew - if that was possible.

Jack smiled down at his blushing buddy, looking proud of himself. "Make sure that you don't touch anything and whatever you see, don't let it effect you too much. You may feel sick when you reach the destination otherwise."

Jessie looked puzzled. "What do you m-?"

Before she could finish her question, Jack lifted her up and threw her into the large box, The murderous girl's eyes widened as she saw her new friend wave her goodbye as she fell into the infinitely large box.

"J-JACK!"

She fell in and the lid of the box closed suddenly. Jack smiled as he looked out to the river Thames, his pitch-black eyes glistened.

"That guy has better thank me for this..."

~:~

Jessie fell into the abyss of the ominous box, realising that the inside was greater in size than the outside, just like the TARDIS from _Doctor Who_; she looked around the sapphire-coloured surroundings, noticing the amazing amount of bubbles that seemed to appear before her, popping as she fell further and further down into the space. Her eyes widened as she smiled at the bubbles; she felt as though she were floating, flying, soaring through the sky at a lazy pace. She had never felt so light before. She was tempted to pop some of the bubbles as she fell, but remembered Laughing Jack's warning about touching anything in this world and grabbed her hand softly to prevent her from disobeying him.

Surrounding her were a selection of thick, old-styled televisions that she had to flip around to be able to see properly. None of them were on, but they were shining and glistening, as if they had been waxed, and this snatched Jessie's attention.

She floated over to one of the televisions and marvelled at it, wondering why Jack would have them inside of his box and why so many; he couldn't possibly need all of them in order to watch T.V. She hadn't been allowed to watch television at the hospital since the staff thought that seeing things from the outside world would corrupt the patients minds and have a bad influence on them; the only moments when she even saw a T.V. were when she went to her psychiatrists office when she had sessions with her, so she couldn't imagine having as many as Jack had in her possession.

The strange thing was that Jessie never missed television; she remembered what television was and why people watched, and she even remembered shows that she used to watch as a child, but it wasn't important now as it was back then. She wondered what kind of shows she watched as a teenager. She knew that she must have watched documentaries about serial killers - everyone in the country knew that now - but she had no idea what else she could have watched. She wished that she could remember.

_"I wonder whether Jeff and I would watch T.V. together..." _She thought to herself as she floated, her eyes suddenly deveoping a huge weight to them.

All of a sudden, the television before her, and all of the ones around her, turned on and displayed a scene; Jessie's eyes widened as she looked at the vision on the sparkling screen as her mouth gaped open.

"J-Jeff..."

On the television screen, on the bed of a messy apartment room covered in video game covers and snack wrappers, was the famous murderer and Jessie's former lover, Jeff the Killer. He was laying down on the bed, curled up in a ball, and to Jessie's surprise, he was crying.

Jessie stared in awe at her previous love in one of the most pathetic positions that anyone - man or woman - could be in - and the most vulnerable.

He looked different from all of pictures of him all over the news that Jessie had seen. In his photographs and candid shots, he always looked so proud, covered in blood and holding his trademark weapon of choice - his kitchen knife; his eyelid-less eyes always creeped Jessie out when she saw them and his permanent smile made his actual smile in the photographs of him on the news seem even more smug than she was sure he was trying to make them. His pale face always reminded Jessie of a ghost, which seemed fitting for him to her since no one ever saw him, but he haunted all of America and last year for a brief amount of time, England.

Although, in this scene, his wide eyes were watery and red, he was covered in blood, but more than usually shown in the candid shots of him, his paper white face was blotchy and crimson and his strong demeanour was replaced with a cowardly, frightened look as he cried into his dried-blood covered pillow. There was no sound on the televisions, but they all showed the same scene; Jessie may not have been able to hear his cries, but she could feel his pain regardless due to his terrified face and the river of tears that he was producing.

It actually hurt her heart to see it.

She knew that she didn't know Jeff at all, since her memories of him were forgotten long ago, and she had found out only hours before that he was actually her former lover, but seeing him like that, caused her heart to ache and her throat to clench up. Her soft hand tenderly brushed the screen - she tried to remember that Jack told her not to touch anything - as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Jeff..." she whispered.

She wanted to know why he was crying. She wanted to ask him herself and hopefully get a response. She wanted to hold him and tell him that everything would be alright. These impulses were filling up Jessie's mind as she desperately wanted to jump through to television screen and see him.

She may have forgotten about their love, but that didn't mean that it wasn't still there.

Suddenly, the television screen turned off, shocking the murderer and causing her to panic, wanting to keep watching her lost love; the televisions around her all flew at top speed upwards, towards the light from which she came from. Bellow Jessie, another light showed itself and grew closer and closer to her.

Jessie covered her eyes with her arms and hoped with all her might that where ever she was about land, she would be able to see her long lost love.

~:~

"AH!"

Jessie's delicate body was abruptly thrown out of the box, causing her to land on the hard ground on her backside; she rubbed her lower back, aching with the pain of the ground harming her butt and moaning, wishing that the sudden discomfort would stop. Laughing Jack suddenly followed her and flew out of the box, but he landed on his black-booted feet - he was most likely used to travelling like that, whereas Jessie wasn't at all, meaning that he could show grace and elegance, whereas all that Jessie could show was clumsiness and no coordination.

The Jack-in-the-Box instantly faded away once Jack was out of it, shocking Jessie as she stared up at it; she wondered what kind of creature Jack must have been if he had the ability to do things like that. It was as if he wasn't a demon clown as he appeared to be, but a magician.

"What the heck was that?" Jessie asked as she got to her feet.

"Have you taken a look around you yet, Jessie?" The clown asked smugly. "I just took you through my original home all the way to my second home. Look ahead."

Jessie did as she was told and looked ahead of her, her eyes widening slightly. Laughing Jack and her happened to be stood on top of a hill with dying plants and broken play equipment all around, letting the girl know that the area used to be a playground for children; the view from the small hill allowed Jessie to see that in front of the two of them was a group of damaged, but well used apartment buildings that stood tall despite the fact that they seemed to be falling apart. The place seemed to be completely deserted, but she could still feel life in the area, like when she was alone in her hospital room, but she could still feel the presence of the nurses, doctors and other patients around her.

"What is this place?" Jessie asked hesitantly as she looked around the area to get a feel of where she was.

"This is my home." Jack stated proudly. "…and the home of Jeff the Killer."


	9. Chapter 8: Loss

**Chapter Eight**

**Loss**

The dream world had never seemed so small to Anthony as he stood, backed up against the invisible wall with his dead best friend before him with her arms crossed and staring into his eyes with hatred in hers. He had attempted to turn his head away from her, but her large, bright, hazel eyes were somehow drawing him in, despite him being terrified of them; he had sudden memories of the times when he angered her in some way and she simply had to glanced at him to make him apologies and cried to her, begging for her not to hurt him and for her forgiveness. He had become braver and harder to push around since those times, but he still felt inferior to her.

She stood her ground and almost appeared as though she were gritting her teeth; this, in addition to her flared nostrils and inflamed eyes, were clear and distinct signs that he shouldn't talk back to her or upset her anymore than he already had, otherwise he was going to get it.

"You do realise that I can hear you when you talk and hear your thoughts in the real world, right?" she asked with clear distress in her stern voice. Anthony could only respond by nodding his head in fear that he would upset her even more if he opened his mouth to speak. "So, why is it that you feel as though you can make arrangements to kill our best friend and think that I'll be alright with it?"

Anthony continued to say nothing. He wanted to make his opinion known and let Sally know that he had reason behind his actions and the decisions that he was making, but by the same token, he didn't want to argue with her in fear of being beaten up or even killed by her. He wished that he could walk away from this argument, but when the person that you're arguing with lives inside your head and can speak to you when your sleeping whether you like it or not, the only thing that you can really do is face the person head on - even if that means that you don't actually speak during the argument itself.

Sally's arms loosened and fell to her sides as she took a step back, giving Anthony a bit more space. She knew that Anthony wasn't talking because of the angered state that she was in and - for once - she was willing to control herself in order to get a response out of him. Reluctantly, she took a large inhale and exhaled slowly, calming herself down for her best friend.

"Okay..." she almost whispered. "I'm calm. Talk to me, Anthony. I won't kill you. Just tell me what you're thinking because seeing into your head doesn't answer the question of why you want to murder Jessie. Jeff I can understand. He's the one who made her like she is and finished me off...but why our best friend and the girl that you used to love?"

Anthony faced the invisible ground and mumbled. "She isn't my friend..."

Sally had the urge to snap, but tamed it and held it in. She couldn't start to lose it now that she had finally gotten him to speak. "I understand that Anthony...but I want to know why you want to."

"You can't control me, Sally."

The ghost girl couldn't help but get frustrated and snap at what her best friend had just said to her.

"I'm not trying to control you! I'm trying to get inside of your head!" She yelled with venomous frustration in her voice.

Anthony's eyes met Sally's, but with the same hostility that hers had – maybe even more. He gritted his own teeth and positioned his hand into a fist, wishing that he had the guts to hit the invisible wall behind him, but he didn't know what would happen. The world around the two teenagers was his subconscious and if he damaged a part of it, it could be a potential problem for him.

"You're already in my head! I can't get you out of it! You know what I'm thinking, so stop asking!"

Sally was taken aback, wondering where her best friend had gotten this sudden courage from. He never argued back to her – or anyone else for that matter. He was the passive and easily pushed around friend that she tried to be nice to for his and Jessie's sake, but sometimes felt the need to dominate and be unpleasant to in a fun and playful way; she never meant it in a mean way, but she did always have to say that she was sorry afterwards, otherwise Anthony would keep crying or sulking.

She had never been genuinely angry at him and yelled at him in a hurtful way before and she never thought the day would come when he would do it. He was so kind and caring usually that she would never have guessed that he _could _be mean or shout at her. She guessed that the incident with Jessie had changed him in so many ways that she couldn't keep track of all of them – including his bravery and his ability to argue.

"Look…Anthony." She tried her hardest to keep herself relaxed so she didn't make him feel as though she were _trying_ to argue with him. She just wanted to understand her friend's motives. That was all. "Jessie isn't the problem here. I get that you haven't forgiven her, but Jeff is the one that you should hate, not Jessie. She could change."

"Change?!" Anthony bellowed out, beginning to laugh out loud. "Are you delusional, Sal? She killed someone to get out of the hospital and I bet that she's killing someone right now while she's on the streets, trying to find Jeff! She won't change! She'll always be a killer!"

Sally's expression became dark. "You don't know that…"

"I wanted to move on, Sally…" Anthony's eyes became grim and desolate. He couldn't figure out whether it was because he was thinking of the fact that Jessie would never go back to being the friend that he had fallen in love with or the fact that he still couldn't leave the past behind, but his heart became tight and he held onto his chest. "I want this to end…I want it all to end…"

The dead girl tilted her head as her eyes relaxed. She couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Anthony to be living in a world where his past tragedies were publicised and shown on the television all the time; it was bad enough that Jessie was always on his mind anyway, but it being all around the place top remind him of all of the events was a million times worse than simply remembering them by himself. Being in his head allowed her to see many things, including his feelings for Jessie and how they changed over time. They went from love to hatred to regret in the course of the last year and she couldn't help but notice that the hatred part only lasted for about a week.

Sally was dead. She was trapped inside of Anthony. She was lucky to not be living in the real world and – she would never admit this to Anthony since he would grow cross at her for saying it – she felt lucky to not be alive. She could easily escape to Anthony's head when she didn't want to face the real world, but Anthony didn't have that option. He had to escape to the country side to get away from the media and Jessie's story, and it still managed to find him in the end. She could sympathise with him.

Although, despite the fact that she could empathise with him, that didn't mean that she could empathise with his emotion and that didn't mean that she agreed with what he was saying; she didn't want to be too mean about the way that she went about it, but she needed to make that clear to him somehow.

"That doesn't mean that you have to kill her…" she stated softly.

"Yes. It does." he stated bluntly as a response.

Sally's small hands clenched into a fist, but she still tried not to lose her cool. "I want to save her, not kill her."

"She can't be saved…" Anthony continued, still laughing slightly as he spoke. "You should know that better than anyone, so why are you defending her? She may not have 'finished the job' as you call it, but she still tried to kill you! She spent the whole of her time with Jeff plotting to violently murder us _both_ and I was the only one out of our whole friendship group and her family who got out alive! She's a murderer and a terrible person! I can't believe that you-!"

SLAP

Anthony stood is shock as Sally's hand firmly collided with his now reddening and throbbing cheek. The brunettes eyes had already started to water as her hand now started trembling; her mouth was in a straight line and her eyes still had anger in them, despite the way that they shimmered and shined thanks to her tears welling up within them. Anthony didn't know how to react to this action.

"You know…" her voice trembled. "I wish that I were alive…just so that I could beat that shit out of you…and then maybe you'd learn not to talk badly about our friend, you insensitive prick…"

~:~

Anthony suddenly awoke with a gasp as he realised that Sally had done something that she had never done before and he wasn't even sure that she could do until that moment – she had kicked him out of the dream. Usually, when he woke up, it's by choice or because someone or something had woken him up in the real world; however, there was nothing in his room that could have woken him up and he had no desire to leave the dream. It just ended abruptly. He hadn't walked into the white light that he usually did and gently woken up.

Sally must have been really angry with him.

"Sal!" he yelled, not worried about his parents hearing him since they were out at the village church as they were every night at around that time. "Hey! Don't end it like this! Please! Talk to me! Give me a sign! Break my desk! Anything! I'm sorry!"

Nothing.

Anthony fell back onto his bed, his head landing roughly on the pillow as he felt the rough patch where Sally had slapped him gently. He sighed roughly, wondering how long it would take for Sally to talk to him again. He had no idea whether she could prevent him from dreaming so that she didn't have to see him, but he bet that if she could, she would the next night. She had never been so angry that she had kicked him out of a dream before and he hadn't expected her to ever be.

She would never understand his emotions, but he had expected her to understand the most.

*RING* *RING*

Anthony's phone began to ring beside him on his bedside table. He could already see that it was Charlotte and he groaned from that fact; he had seen so much of her over the last few days and he felt as though he needed a break from the 'going to find Jeff and Jessie' talk; however he couldn't tell her that or ignore her call because he didn't know what she would do. Her showing him her meaner side had actually caused Anthony to grow fearful of her since he had no idea how mean or angry she could get. She was mystery to him.

He picked up the phone hesitantly and answered. "Hello?"

"_Hey! Anthony!" _She sounded happy-go-lucky as she used to the previous year, but Anthony knew that could change any second, depending on what he said to her next. _"I just wanted to make sure that I'm still picking you up tomorrow morning at 7am for our flight?"_

"Yes." Anthony answered calmly, despite his raging emotions from his previous conversation with Sally; he had already packed for the trip and his parents had given him the okay too – he had told them that he was going to a made-up Christian festival for his non-existent Religious Studies exam. His parents didn't know that when teenagers did A-Level's that they only did one year of R.S. and then they could drop it and they didn't bother to learn that fact; they trusted Anthony too much. "I'll be ready for you."

"_Great!" _Charlotte sounded extremely pleased with his response. _"I guess that I'll see you then! Get some rest! We'll have a lot to do when we arrive!"_

"Thanks. Sure thing."

"_See you then!"_

"See you then."

The frustrated teen threw his phone on the ground and signed once more with irritation. He wished that he had never agreed to going to America with Charlotte and her easily angered brother Dan. All it had caused was excess stress for him and Sally and for the two of them to argue. It hadn't brought anything good to the table at all so far. He was doing fine until she showed up and he felt as though he was actually starting to forget about Jessie and move on with his life.

Why couldn't the world just let him forget her?

He rose from his bed and leaned next to it, reaching underneath. He pulled out a cardboard box and opened the weak lid, revealing a collection of photographs from his later years in Oxford with Jessie, Sally, Lavinne and Ann-Ann. He had never wanted to make friends with the boys in his school, since they were all mean to him for liking school work and the girls were nicer to him; Jessie had been the first girl to be genuinely, 100% kind to him, which was one of the reasons why he fell in love with her.

He picked up his favourite picture in the pile, which was on top of the other pictures since he loved to look at it every so often when he felt down about the Jessie situation and he didn't want to admit it to Sally, since he kept forgetting that she could see into his mind and knew when he was anyway – other than that, he never touched the box at all. He knew that he was supposed to let go of his memories of Jessie and the others, but he just couldn't get over it.

She was his first love and they were his first, real friends.

The photograph showed Jessie smiling brightly – her smile was the reason why this picture was his favourite – dressed in an accidently low-cut, crimson dress as Anthony was dressed in a black suit. She was holding onto his arm and he was blushing slightly – not that she noticed. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing contacts and he remembered her calling him handsome before they left for the event with the rest of the group of girls, making him nearly die of a heart attack. This was at their Year 11 prom.

Jessie and him hadn't gone as a couple, but as friends just wanting to have a good time; he couldn't remember how that happened, but he remembered desperately wanting to ask her to it, but chickening out. When this picture was taken, Sally – who insisted on wearing a suit instead of a dress like Jessie suggested – Lavinne and Ann-Ann were dancing and Anthony needed a breather from the loud music and sweaty teenagers, so Jessie went outside with him. The photographer ambushed them and asked for a picture and Jessie said yes as long as they both got a copy and so, the picture happened.

He remembered how her body moved when she stepped onto the dance floor; how her hips shook, how her breast bounced, how her butt curved around and most importantly, how she smiled and laughed.

He loved her so much.

But that was the past and before she killed his friends and plotted to kill him. That was before Jeff the Killer took her away from him.

He couldn't think about the past anymore.

He had to look into his Jessie-less and Jeff-less future and concentrate on his secret mission.

He had to kill them both before the trip was over and nothing – not even Sally – would get in his way.


	10. Chapter 9: Surprise

**Okay guys, so this chapter is an important one.**

**There was a scene at the end that I wanted to add into it, but I'll leave the scene for the next chapter. I was too tired to write it. Plus, so much important stuff happens in this chapter that I just thought that I would leave it for now. **

**This chapter is a big one, guys. It's the one that many of you have been waiting for :)**

**I hope that I did a good job with it and that you enjoy reading it. I've been building up to this part of the story since the Prologue and I'm excited about it being finished! Have fun reading it.**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**Surprise**

"I don't know what to do about Jeff…" BEN whispered as he and Eyeless Jack leaned on the wall in the hallway.

The wallpaper was chipping off – as would be expected of an aging and breaking building – and Masky and Hoody had promised to get it fixed in the next week, but BEN liked the fact that the place was falling apart. If the apartments were in good condition, it wouldn't be the same place. The creatures living there were monsters and they needed to live in a place that accommodated their needs and displayed who they were and their identity. This was their home and it needed to be the same as it always was. He didn't want for their home to change _and_ for Jeff to change at the same time – that would too much for him to handle.

"I don't either." Jack admitted. "He won't listen to anyone and he won't talk to anyone…even you."

BEN sighed when he realised that Jack was right. The thing that was hurting him the most was the fact that Jeff didn't even feel as though he could speak to BEN about what was happening or how he felt about Jessie leaving him. He had spent their friendship telling him anything and everything; he even told him everything happening with Jessie when he first met her – and now he had completely cut him off. It made more sense to the gamer for Jeff to come to him and ask for help, but the killer refused to.

"God…I just feel as though he's completely gone." BEN felt the tears well up in his blood-soaked eyes. "I've listened to him crying for the past hour…it's so sad."

Jack patted BEN on the back gently. "He's not gone…just lost. He'll come back."

BEN's head drifted downwards and he stared at the floor. "I don't even think _that's_ true anymore…"

If Jack had eyes, they would be as wide as Jeff's engraved smile. BEN had been the only one defending Jeff since he had begun to go crazy; he had been saving him from the police, making excuses for him to Slenderman and telling everyone to be patient with him and that he would go back to normal soon enough. He had acted like a true best friend should have – but now he had given up all hope.

He was holding onto the fact that Jeff would eventually get over his love and loss of Jessie and move on with his life, up until now. From what he could tell, his best friend was perfectly happy before he had met Jessie and he could go back to that happiness easily – or at least, he _should _have been able to. Obviously, monsters would have baggage that they couldn't get rid of – BEN sometimes heard Jeff whining and crying in the night about his past and how he had killed his family, especially Liu – but that didn't mean that they couldn't live happy lives with their fellow monsters. Jeff was relatively popular around the apartments and he got along with everyone, even if he did cause a fight every now and then; even those who he considered his enemies would still admit to BEN that they liked him. He was happy before all of this.

Although, BEN couldn't hope and pray anymore. To him, the Jeff that he knew was long gone and there was nothing that he could do about it.

"You don't mean that…" Jack mumbled.

"Don't I?" The tears were falling down the child's face as he stared up at Eyeless Jack with an angry expression. "Jack, face reality. Jeff is long gone and there's nothing we can do about it. He's going to mourn his loss forever and I can't wait around for him to 'get better' anymore!"

Jack's head began to throb. "What the hell happened to you believing that he would go back to normal?! What?! You're going to give up just like that?!"

"What more can I do?!" BEN exclaimed. "I've been patient and understanding, but I'm never going to get him back! I'll never get Jeff back!"

"Just be patient some more!" Jack yelled out, hoping to get BEN to understand.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF WAITING, JACK!"

BANG

The two killers rotated their bodies as Jeff slammed his bedroom door open with a loud bang. His eyes were red and he had bags under them from all the crying he had been doing; he knew that the others had heard his pathetic cries, but he didn't care in that moment. The killer didn't look at the two that stood next to his bedroom door; he had heard what they had said and how BEN had no given up on him, but he didn't care about it. He didn't care about anything anymore.

"J-Jeff?" BEN asked hesitantly, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, smearing them all over his childish face. "Y-You…What are you…?"

The murderer ignored his friend and walked straight passed the two of his fellow lodgers. BEN watched with disbelief, despite the fact that he expected Jeff to do that. He couldn't comprehend the fact that this miserable and insensitive Jeff used to be the funny and mischievous Jeff that he used to call his best friend. He knew that he was right to say that he had completely gone – if he kept hoping and thinking that Jeff would one day come back to him, he would fall into a depression much like Jeff's and he wouldn't return from it either. The last thing that the apartments needed was _two_ depressed killers moping around – one was bad enough.

On the other hand, Jack wasn't giving up so easily. "Jeff!"

Jeff ignored him as well and walked down the stairs, clearly heading for the front door; Jack and BEN both knew that he must have been heading out into town again to kill or even rape someone else. BEN stayed in his position against the wall, looking sullen, but Jack followed Jeff down the stairs and chased him.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" he yelled out. "You're not going back out to town! You just got back! You need rest!"

"Fuck off." Jeff stated calmly, as if he hadn't just spent his whole morning not talking to a single soul.

Jack's face felt as though it was going red with fury, even though he knew that it couldn't because of the sapphire colour of his skin. "Don't tell me to fuck off!"

The two of them were now on ground level and were both heading towards the door. Jack caught up with Jeff and grabbed a hold of his arm, pulling him back slightly and stopping his movement.

"Look…." Jack mumbled. "I don't give a shit of you go into town or not, but BEN does. What he said a moment ago doesn't mean shit. He cares about you and if you want to do the one decent thing as a friend that you can do for him, you'll-!"

Jeff grabbed Jack's arm and gripped it so tightly that Jack could feel the pressure cutting off his blood circulation. Jeff glared at Jack with hatred in his eyes; the cannibal hadn't seen him this angry before and he had hoped that he would never have to. BEN was now making his way down the stairs, his child-legs causing him to waddle slightly; he didn't want a fight to break out.

"Don't touch me." Jeff stated calmly as he released Jack's arm. Jack grabbed his throbbing forearm and held it to keep the pain in check. "Just leave me the fuck alone."

Jack growled. "You prick…can you not understand that we want to help you?"

"You heard BEN." Jeff pointed towards his gaming buddy, his expression not changing. "He's done waiting for me…and I don't blame him."

BEN's eyes drifted towards the floor. He was unable to look at Jeff without crying out with guilt at saying what he had said. Jack glanced back to BEN, still gripping his arm, then turned back to look at Jeff.

"Don't make him feel bad, Jeff. You've put him through enough." Jeff's pointing finger made its way back down to his side. "You've put BEN through hell and beyond. Staying out without telling him where you are, nearly getting caught by the cops, not talking to him, coming back covered in God knows what…you're doing enough to him! Don't try and make him feel guilty for giving up on your sorry ass too!"

"IDIDN'T ASK FOR HIS HELP!" Jeff roared.

Before Jack could say or do anything to stop him, Jeff turned around and headed for the door once more. His was about to turn the handle and walk through, however, before he could get out of the reception, he bumped into a very tall individual and just caught himself before falling onto the floor.

"Sup, Jeff?!" Laughing Jack had just walked through the door, a big grin on his face and his claw-like fingers giving Jeff a mini, playful salute.

Jeff glared at the clown. He didn't have time for his idiocy in that moment; he needed to get away from the two monsters behind him as fast as he could and go and kill someone to relive him of his stress. BEN and Eyeless Jack stared in wonder as to how Laughing Jack could manage to smile like that at Jeff and why he seemed to be very happy.

Ever since the incident with Jessie had occurred, Laughing Jack had been the only monster in the apartments who could talk to Jeff as if everything was normal, even if Jeff didn't speak back to him. The demon clown had hope that if he treated Jeff normally while he was going through this depression, then when he would eventually go back to normal, he could feel as though he could be himself again and that nothing had changed around him. He could just jump back into his old world with no problems or strings attached. The entertainer had eventually left for the city about a week prior and stated that he would bring back something that would make Jeff feel better, but he didn't seem to have anything with him.

BEN stepped forward. "LJ…you said that you would be back in two days. Where have you been?"

Laughing Jack chuckled innocently, like the children that he used to entertain. "I've been busy finding something to make my friend smile."

Jeff growled. "I don't have time for you, shit-head."

The clown exhaled. "Now, Jeff. That's no way to talk to your friend. Especially when they have a surprise for you like I do."

"I don't give a flying-fuck about your surprise!"

"You will when you see what it is."

BEN and Eyeless Jack both stared at the clown wondering what he was implying. Jeff had spent a year being depressed and angry about Jessie leaving him and the killing-clown expected that something that he found in the city was going to make a difference as to how he felt? BEN had tried everything in his power to make Jeff feel better and he knew Jeff better than anyone else, but his attempts still failed. He had no idea how Laughing Jack thought that he could make Jeff feel better after all this time.

The black and white man continued to speak. "I went looking for some people for you to kill as a present, but I found something even better instead. This will really make your day…not just your day, but your year!"

Jeff pushed passed his frienemey roughly, causing for Laughing Jack to be pushed against the wall.

"WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" he yelled. "I DON'T WANT EVERYONE TRYING TO HELP ME! I DON'T NEED YOU GUYS TO CODDLE ME! ALL I NEED IS-!"

BUMP

Jeff had bumped into another smaller and thinner person with not a lot of muscle tone to them – most likely a girl; the impact was enough to push him down to the floor this time and he landed on his buttocks. His palms went on the ground to keep him sat up and not on his back, as he moaned with pain and irritation. He had no idea who he had bumped into this time, but they were going to get it – he wasn't in a good moos and he wasn't going to stand for someone knocking him down, even i9f it was by accident.

"HEY! WATCH WHERE Y-!"

He stopped.

She stopped.

The girl pushed some of her long, dark hair away from her face and glanced upwards. Her large, chocolate coloured eyes were looking deep into Jeff's wide, black ones as her caramel coloured hand placed some of her midnight hair behind her ear. She had also landed on her buttocks and was using her other hand to hold herself up as well as Jeff. Her hair was scattered all over the floor due to its length, which was the first thing that Jeff noticed about her – her hair had grown from the last time that he had seen this girl.

BEN stepped forward in disbelief, his eyes widened and his mouth gaping open. He couldn't believe what he was seeing – or rather, _who _he was seeing. Eyeless Jack made the same movements. BEN had shown his photographs of this girl from news websites from when she was hospitalised and blamed for Jeff's killings. They both couldn't believe what Laughing Jack had done, all the while, the clown was smiling and grinning, looking very pleased with himself.

Jeff's heart was beating at a hundred miles a minute as he realised that something was caught in his throat. His eyes couldn't become wider, but he knew that if he had eye-lids then they would be as stretched out as Texas.

The girl found the words to speak in this awkward silence, even if her voice was croaky and she was clearly blushing.

"J-Jeff…the Killer?"

Jeff's voice suddenly came back and he used it to whisper. "Jessie…?"

"AHAHAHAHA!"Laughing Jack stepped forward and lifted Jeff off of the floor. He had always been able to pick Jeff up and he knew that he could take Jeff in a fight, no matter how many times the killer claimed that he would win every battle that they had. "See? What did I tell you? You weren't expecting that, were you?"

Once Jeff was on his feet, Laughing Jack went over to Jessie and held his hand out to her like a gentleman. She took it and he pulled her up too, smiling deeply at her as he could tell that she was excited to be meeting Jeff.

BEN spoke. "You…What did you do, LJ? How did you…?"

The tall clown turned to the Link-double and grinned, displaying his pointed teeth. "I found her."

Eyeless Jack contributed. "What do you mean? She was in a hospital."

"You know, you two need to keep up with human news. She escaped from that place the other day."

Everyone silently gasped, except for Jeff, who couldn't take his eyes off of the girl standing before him – the one that he never thought that he would see again.

"She escaped to find Jeff and be with him again. Her memory isn't restored or anything, but while she was captivated, she could remember a boy who she was in love with and all it took was her meeting me so I could tell her who you were. She couldn't remember anything else, but you, Jeff."

Jessie smiled at the petrified killer and went slightly crimson at Laughing Jack's comments. She held her hand out to Jeff. "Hi. I'm Jessie Walker…although, I guess that you know that. I'm sorry that I don't really remember you, but I want to get to know you again…if you want to, Jeff."

Jeff stared down at her hand and then back at her face as anger grew inside of him. Jessie was taken aback by the irritation in his face and took an instinctive step backwards.

The killer rotated his body and clenched his hand into a fist.

PUNCH

His fist made direct contact with Laughing Jack's face as it sent him falling against the wall; Jessie covered her mouth with her frozen hands and took more steps backwards in shock. BEN and Eyeless Jack ran towards Laughing Jack and held him up as he rubbed his now bruised face.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Jeff yelled out. "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BROUGHT HER HERE! SHE DOESN'T BELONG HERE!"

Jessie's heart was crushed. She had spent so long hoping to see her long lost lover and wishing that he would be happy to see her and wishing that he would caress her or even simply shake her hand, if hugging her was too awkward. Either way, she was desperately holding onto the hope that he would be happy to see her. She didn't understand why he was so angry with Laughing Jack for bringing her to him.

Jeff turned and faced her, tears in his eyes. She gave him a sympathetic look.

"_Don't look at me like that…" _Jeff thought to himself. _"It'll make me…make me…"_

He dashed out of the room and the building, heading towards the forest. Jessie called out after him.

"Wait! Jeff! Wait! Don't go!"

Laughing Jack got to his feet and sprinted out after his friend, with only concern in his eyes; he called out after him as Jessie had done, but Jeff refused to turn back.

Jessie watched as the man she loved ran away from her, tears filling her eyes as she was left in the apartment building without her new friend or her former lover. She had run away from the hospital, knowing that she would find Jeff somehow and now she had, she wished that she could curl up into a ball underground, away from everyone and everything and simply cry.

"Jeff…"


	11. Chapter 10: Arrival

**Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!**

**So, I am on Christmas break, but I have a hell of a lot of work to do and don't really have a lot of time to work, like I did last winter. Plus, personal stuff is really getting in the way of working, but it shouldn't be like this after new years, so I'll be writing a lot then.**

**I hope that you enjoy the chapter and keep up with the story. It will be getting better now that Jeff and Jessie have actually met and are now living in the same building. Plus, Anthony and Sally are on their way to them as well, so that will be interesting. Also, I will be including a new and huge Creepypasta that I am genuinely scared of and he will be playing a huge part in the story. Look out for him.**

**I hope that you guys have a great Christmas and don't get too wasted on New Years ;)**

**I know that Christmas is going to make me fat, since my dad knows how to make good chicken *licks her lips* but then it's the diet for me :) Wish me luck with that, guys!**

**I'll see you after Christmas!**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

**Arrival**

"Whoa…this hotel's really nice." Anthony stated as he, Charlotte and Dan carried their luggage through to their section of the building.

"Only the best for my buddies." Charlotte smiled at her young friend as she took them through to a large living room, which was a part of the package of staying in the hotel that her parents had rented for the group of them to live in during their trip. By themselves, Anthony and the others were taking up a third of a floor, which included a living room, a kitchen, master bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms for each of them and a minibar that sat next to the kitchen – not that Anthony drank.

Anthony marvelled at the living room's large, plasma screen television and the leather couches that sat before it as Dan tipped the man who had taken their bags up to the suit for them; the man looked dissatisfied with his tip, which didn't surprise Anthony, since Dan had proved at the airport through his refusal to spend _any _money whatsoever and making Anthony pay for most of the food and magazines that they read while waiting for the plane to take off, that he was cheap, despite the large amount of money that he got from his parents for the trip and in general. The teen would have thought that with the large bank balance that he had, he would be slightly more liberal with his money.

The teen had never been somewhere so extravagant before – in fact, he had never been outside of England before, so this trip to Florida, including the amazing, first class, 9 hour flight, was a real experience for him, despite the fact that he was only on the trip to find his murderous old crush and her demented boyfriend. He couldn't even believe it when he stepped foot in Dan's apartment and saw how extravagant it was, so seeing this hotel was what really proved to him that Charlotte's parents must have been as rich as she had claimed – maybe even richer. It was one of the most expensive hotels in the country and they had rented a while section of it for themselves – this would be something to tell the folks when he got home.

Dan dumped his suitcase on the floor next to the door and headed straight for the bar. Charlotte gave him an irritated look, as she seemed to do most of the time. "Dan, we can't be drinking. We need to get rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow. I know that it's the afternoon, but I'm sure that you're tired."

The brother ignored his younger sister and poured himself a vodka and coke, his back to her. The anger was showing in Charlotte's face as she became crimson and her eyebrows tensed up; Anthony could tell that the two of them never said a nice word to each other and that Charlotte seemed to love telling Dan what to do – like an older sister, rather than a younger one by two years. This scene reminded him of Sally and him when she was acting stubborn and didn't want to listen to him – who hadn't been talking to him since their fight.

The teen had fallen asleep on the plane ride – since he was too stressed to sleep the night before the plane ride – and ended up having a dreamless sleep for the first time since Sally had died; the ghost girl clearly didn't want to talk to him at all and wanted to ignore him for the rest of the trip. She hadn't even gone near him while he was awake – he could usually feel her presence, but he had felt nothing since the fight. He didn't understand why she was as angry at him as she was at all; he was speaking the truth in his eyes, when they argued and she just didn't want to accept it. He didn't see the need to apologise to her, but he had learnt from last year with Jessie and the incident with her and John that his pride was not who should have come first. He had been trying to apologise to her since that night, but she didn't seem to want to know. He didn't know what else he could do.

"Alright…"Dan moaned as he slammed his drink back down on the bar, which snapped Anthony out of his thoughts of his dead best friend. Charlotte had moved closer to her older brother and had clearly been telling him off – like usual – about his drinking, but he must have listened this time and stopped what he was doing.

The policewoman gave a triumphant smile and giggled. "Good. I like it when you listen to me."

"I'm going to bed." Dan growled. He got to his feet and wondered towards a hallway that would lead to one of the en-suite bedrooms, picking up his suitcase. "I want to sleep. The plane's seats were shit. They fucked my back up…"

"Hold it, mister!" Charlotte made Dan freeze his movements. "Just to check, you do know the plans for tomorrow, right?"

Her brother groaned heavily. "_I'm _the one who made them, dear sister. We're heading to the Jeff the Killer Fan-Club tomorrow to get information on sightings of him."

Anthony had stared at Dan in amazement when he initially told him of this ridiculous club of Jeff's before their flight. Anthony did have a personal vendetta against the murderer for what he did to Jessie, but that didn't mean that he wasn't surprised that the guy who mercilessly killed others would have a fan-club. He wanted to spit in disgust at the idea, but didn't lack the decorum to do so. He knew that if Sally were listening to Dan when he said that – since he didn't know if she was – she would have reacted similarly and would have most likely spat for him.

"You got that, right, kid?" Dan was addressing Anthony. He refused to call him by his actual name, but Anthony didn't bother correcting him – he had been doing so since they left the country and it was obvious that he wasn't going to stop with the nick-name.

"Yeah." he responded with.

"Good." Dan yawned. "I'm going to bed. Don't get too pissy, Char."

His sister ignored the comment and simply sighed. Once he had disappeared into the hallway, she leaned her head back with her arms crossed. "I swear, my brother is such an idiot."

Anthony chuckled. "Maybe…you could cut him some slack." She seemed shocked at his comment. "I mean, he's here to find the guy who killed his friend. He's got it rough enough, you know?"

She smiled. "You're really kind, Anthony. Sally must have loved having you around."

Anthony jolted, remembering the argument that the two shared once more. "U-Uh…yeah."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Charlotte covered her mouth with her hand so that her words were muffled, although Anthony could still hear her. "I shouldn't mention her."

Anthony shrugged. "I'd rather you mention Sally than Jessie."

Charlotte have him a sympathetic smile. Her soft hand went on the teenager's head and she rubbed his chestnut hair. "Get some rest, Anthony. You deserve it."

Anthony's cheeks went rosy as he marvelled at Charlotte's beauty. Despite the fact that they had been traveling for the majority of a day, her clothes didn't smell of anything other than strawberry's, her make-up was perfect, her hair was curly and flowing like a dolls and she didn't look even the slightest bit tired. He couldn't deny the fact that she was a gorgeous woman who didn't seem to have any flaws when it came to her looks – her anger when it came to her brother on the other hand was a massive turn off for the otaku.

"R-Right…" he mumbled.

Charlotte smiled harder, not taking her hand off of his head. "I'm glad you came. Thank you."

Anthony couldn't help but smile back. "It was my pleasure…"

"…_because now…" _Anthony finished in his head. _"I can get rid of those two once and for all…"_

~:~

"Jeff!" Laughing Jack shouted as he chased after his murderous friend. "Wait!"

Jeff had managed to get to the river on the other side of the apartments before Laughing Jack had caught up with him, his fists clenched and his teeth grinding against each other; he knew the area inside and out, and the river-side was the area that he loved to go to when he was angry or irritated, which tended to happen a lot – although, at that moment, those emotions didn't even cover half of how he felt. The gently moving of the river usually calmed the killer down and allowed him to relax by sitting under a nearby tree and napping, but at that moment, not even the river could calm him down.

He rotated his body, his blood boiling and an angered look on his face. "What the fuck do you want, clown?!"

Jack stopped moving and began to pant heavily. He wasn't used to running around – teleportation and traveling with his Jack-in-the-box was more his style; he knew that being a killer meant that your stamina had to be high, but with his powers, he didn't see the need to exercise. It was moments like this that he realised that jogging maybe once a day might do him some good.

"What the hell, man?! What's your problem?!"

"What the hell do you _think _my problem is?!" Jeff yelled. "You think that you can just waltz into the building with..with…_her _on your arm and I'll be smiling and laughing?! Are you out of your mind?!"

"Well…I did!" Jack's face began to scrunch up and distort. He didn't understand what was happening or why Jeff wasn't jumping for joy. "You've been moping over her for the past year, Jeff! I was trying to bring you the one thing that you've been wishing for! I was trying to do something nice for you and what do you do?! Punch me in the face?! You should be thanking me!"

"**THANKING YOU?!**"

Jeff's hand grabbed a hold of the front of Jack's shirt as he pushed him against a nearby, dying tree that was still strong enough to hold his large body against it. Jack's eyes widened as he looked upon his friend being violent towards him for the first time since he met him; Jeff had always threatened to beat him up just because that was how he showed he liked someone, but he never actually acted upon it. Jack was in shock. The killer's eyes were full of fire and contempt, which frightened the demon clown more than anything – and he lived in an apartment full of monsters and killers.

"Look, you moron…" Jeff growled. "Jessie doesn't even have her memories back. There was a reason why Slender and I decided to leave her where she was _without _her memories of me. She doesn't need to be surrounded by killers or monsters like us because she isn't like us."

"She is!" Jack bellowed. "She was about to kill some guys when I found her!"

"That's because she escaped. You should have put her back in that hospital. Slender'll kill you if he finds out what you've done."

Jeff's grip on Jack loosened and he let the clown fall to the floor, still leaning against the tree.

"You've made a big mistake…."

At that moment, Jeff remembered the day when she was about to jump off of the roof before her memories were lost; the look on her face nearly destroyed Jeff as much as the thought that she had truly died. The look of regret and love combined on that teenagers face couldn't have stabbed Jeff in the heart any more than it had. He had been used to seeing her cry, laugh, smile and grin at him, but never a look like that.

When her voice trembled as she spoke, he knew that he was killing her inside just as much as she was killing him. He had been debating for the past year whether he had wanted her back in his life or not, but now he knew. Her being in his life would kill them both and he couldn't let it happen.

"_I love you, Jeff…"_

Those were the last words that Jessie had ever spoken to him. He thought about those words every day, playing them back in his head like a tape recorder. He could feel the wind of the roof, the tremor in her voice, the shaking of his hands and the burning of his heart from that day, every time he thought about it. He would never be able to forget her or that day for the rest of his life and he knew that she had meant those words with all her heart, but that didn't mean that he could go back to her.

He had to keep away from her to protect her and himself.

"You've made a _very _big mistake…"

~:~

Jessie was in shock.

She didn't understand what had just happened or why Jeff reacted the way she did when he saw her; she thought that he would have been over the moon to see her from what Laughing Jack had told her. She knew that he said that Jeff could be moody and mean sometimes, but she didn't expect for him to simply attacking Laughing Jack and walking out of the building in distress. She thought that after not seeing her for a year, that he would want to speak with her to see how she was and that she could do that same with him. She wanted that talk more than anything else.

Her heart suddenly felt crushed, as if someone had come along and grabbed it, only to squeeze it until it bled out and killed her. She wanted to kneel down on the floor and weep for her unexpected disappointment, but refused to make herself look weak in front of the killers behind her. If there was one thing that she didn't need while staying in that place, it was for the other murderers to think that she was weak.

She had been dreaming of this moment for months, hoping that once she finally met Jeff, he would welcome her with open arms and would love her as she vaguely remembered he loved her before she ended up in the hospital, but instead, he seem angry to see her and didn't even want to speak to her. He even punched Laughing Jack for bringing her to him.

She didn't understand.

He was supposed to love her as much as she loved him. They would have to get to know each other again, but it shouldn't have been this difficult for him to even _talk_ to her.

BEN broke the awkward silence in the lobby and decided that he needed to take responsibility for Jeff's mess – once again – so he hesitantly stepped forward and got in front of Jessie. "Hey, Jessie."

The murder looked down at the gaming, Link body-double in shock. She recognised the child, but couldn't figure out from where she had met him before; she figured that she knew him before her memories were lost, but she felt rude not knowing him when he clearly knew her. "Um…uh…um…"

"It's okay." he said softly. "You probably don't remember me, but I'm BEN. I helped you when you and Jeff were having problems."

She smiled, embarrassed. "I'm sorry…I don't remember you."

He laughed gently. "I get it. Don't worry. And uh…don't worry about Jeff…he's been a bit of a brat since…you know."

Jessie tilted her head. This was a good opportunity to know more about her past and to figure out why Jeff seemed so angry about her being there. "Wait…I _don't_ know."

There was one thing that BEN didn't want to do and that was to cause Jessie any reason to become anymore upset than she already was; if she didn't remember her trying to kill herself on the night that she lost her memories, then that might have been a good thing. Jeff was already an emotional wreck as far as he could tell and they didn't need to be dealing with two killing, upset kids – especially Jessie, since she was a hormonal, teenage girl who had proven that she can kill in horrendous ways.

He ignored her inquiry and pointed towards Eyeless Jack, causing Jessie to assume that he hadn't heard her question. "Well, I'm BEN DROWNED, but you can called me BEN. Everyone else does. You've already met Laughing Jack and this guy right here, is Eyeless Jack."

Jack waved awkwardly and Jessie returned the favour, not sure what to do about getting her question answered.

"Well…I guess that you're tired from traveling with Laughing Jack. He can get a bit annoying." BEN laughed out.

"Well, actually, Laughing Jack seems really fun and nice…" Jessie mumbled, going slightly pink. "…but I am pretty tired. I haven't really slept for two days."

"Well, then…how about I show you to your room and you can get some rest, while we try and grab Jeff. We have many spare rooms here, so I'll show you to the nicest one."

Jessie smiled. "Thank you. That would be great."

The two of them walked towards the staircase. Jessie smiled at Eyeless Jack as she passed him and he nodded in response; she wondered how he lost his eyes – even though she knew that it would be rude as ask out loud – and why he was a monster who had to live in the apartments, away from civilisation, like Jeff or Laughing Jack. He seemed nice enough to her and so did BEN. She couldn't imagine that they were the type of people to harm others or to kill like Jeff or her.

The young blond directed Jessie to the door at the end of the hallway at the top of the stairs and opened the door for her. She peeked inside and saw a well make, comfy looking, single bed, a wooden desk with books already there for her to read, a large wardrobe where one door was open, revealing it to already have girls clothes that looked as though they might be able to fit her and a teddy bear laying on the floor.

"You can use anything in here." BEN stated as Jessie smiled softly at the contents of her new room. "If you run out of clothes, just tell us and we can have it washed for you."

"Thank you, BEN." Jessie beamed at him and he smiled back at her.

"You're very welcome, Jessie." he responded with. "And once again, don't worry about Jeff. He's a child at times and he doesn't know how to react to things like an adult."

Jessie smiled solemnly. "I get it…don't worry…"

Once BEN had disappeared and left her to rest, Jessie slowly closed the door and leaned against it.

The day had not gone as she had wanted it to. First she nearly got gang raped by a bunch of moronic guys – one of which, she was supposed to kill – then she was saved by a demon clown who happened to know the man she was looking for and then when she finally found him, she couldn't believe it. He was right in front of her and her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. The urge to wrap her arms around him and stroke his dark mane was overpowering and she would have done it if she wasn't too timid.

She didn't expect for him to really look like he did in the photographs that she had seen on the news of him – with his pale skin, engraved smile and lack of eyelids – but that didn't matter to her; she always imagined him to look like a normal human, and now that she knew that he didn't, she didn't mind a single bit. He was absolutely everything that she wanted to him to be. His dark eyes captured her the second she saw him and she wanted to press her forehead against his and stare into them all day. The memories of him saying that he loved her and wanted to be with her forever all came into her head at that moment and she felt really, truly in love for the second time.

…but he didn't feel that way at all.

"Jeff…" she whispered. "Why…don't you want me…?"

She didn't mean for it to happen, but the tears began as soon as she mumbled those words. She didn't know what else to do. The man that she was in love with didn't want anything to do with her and she knew it.

"Jeff…why don't you want to be with me?"

She collapsed to the floor, leaning against the door and holding her face in her hands, sobbing quietly to herself, hoping that she was having a terrible nightmare, but knowing full-well that this was real. She had dreamt of finding Jeff for so long – even if she didn't know that it was him – and she always pictured him being so happy to see her that he started to cry himself and took a hold of her in his arms. She was hold him tightly and kiss him all over, happy to be with him again…but he didn't even touch her when he saw her. He couldn't even shake her hand.

She wanted something more than for her to have simply met him.

She wanted to know the truth about their past and how she ended up far away from him. She wanted to know what their relationship was like. She wanted to know what _she _was like.

"Jeff…" she sobbed. "Jeff…Jeff…Jeff…"


	12. Chapter 11: Mixed Feelings

**Hey guys!**

**Happy new year! Welcome back to the story and I hope that you guys all had a good new years! Mine was a bit crazy, but it wasn't too bad. Here's a new chapter for you all to read!**

**God, I forgot how disgustingly romantic I can be until I wrote this chapter (O_O) Between this and the new CreepyPasta Nightmare chapter, I've become more girly and have been writing about feelings more and more...ewww. In Jeff the Killer: Not Expected, I was writing romantic crap quite a lot, but this story had been more toned down...well, I guess that it won't be anymore.**

**This chapter is pretty damn romantic and emotional, so grab some tissues and some chocolate (or whatever girls use or eat when watching Chick-Flicks. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean that I watch that stuff. I'm more of a Walking Dead or Breaking Bad type of person.) I got a bit emotional myself when writing this, I have to admit - mainly when writing Jeff's section. I've been having problems dealing with a break up for the past couple of months and it's affected me in a similar way to how Jessie disappearing has affected Jeff. I don't get upset _too _easily, but this really got to me. To be honest, writing this chapter has really let me release my feelings and get them all out in the open.**

**I feel a bit better now :)**

**I hope that you enjoy this chapter and don't actually get too upset at it. It shouldn't have that much of an effect on you guys, but just in case, I'm sorry (^_^;) I guess that I'll let you read now, but I do hope that you guys like the chapter. I can't wait to write the next one.**

**I'll see you guys then!**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

**Mixed Feelings**

Jessie's night sleep had not been the best that she had ever had, but she preferred it to sleeping in the hollow, cold hospital bed that she had been sleeping in for the past year. She had spent the majority of her night crying softly into her pillow and coming up with a way that she could leave before Jeff returned to the apartments that night. She figured that if he didn't want her there, then she had no reason to hang around and just be an annoyance to him. She would have to go back to the hospital soon and be trapped in there for the rest of her life – or in prison, since she had killed someone on her way out of the hospital that she wasn't supposed to leave in the first place, not that she was afraid of not being able to protect herself in prison if she did end up going there. She didn't want to go back to being captivated now that she'd had a taste of freedom and fresh air, but at least she knew the man that she loved – even if he didn't actually want her.

In the middle of the night, she rose from her bed and got to her feet, about to sneak out of the place. She would have regretted not thanking Laughing Jack for helping her find her long lost love and BEN for his help with hers and Jeff's relationship before she had lost her memories – even if she didn't remember it – but she just wanted to get the hell out of the apartments as fast as she could. She walked towards her door when she heard hushed arguing coming from outside her door.

Jeff the Killer had returned from his trip out. He had been away from the building since he stormed out, when they met earlier and no one knew where he had been. Laughing Jack came back after running after him and just said that he hadn't run into him and couldn't find him; there was something about his tone of voice that Jessie didn't believe, but she didn't comment on it. She was a guest at his apartment building and she wanted to behave herself for the short time that she had planned to stay there.

From outside of her room, she heard BEN and Jeff arguing about where he had gone and why he hadn't spoken to Jessie yet; BEN stated that Jeff had been moping about Jessie since she disappeared a year ago and that he should have been happy. This caused Jessie's heart to flutter slightly; she was pleased to know that Jeff had missed her. The killer simply replied by saying that he didn't have to show anything to anyone, including her, which almost crushed the female killers heart once more, but he immediately stated that he didn't know how to feel about her being there and that he would speak to her at some point as long as BEN didn't pressure him to.

This gave Jessie some hope.

He may speak to her at some point soon, but judging by the way he phrased it, she couldn't rush him and would just have to be patient. That was what she needed to head back to bed and sob quietly to herself in her pillow, praying that Jeff loved her like she wished that he had.

A voice in her head was telling her that he did care about her a lot and that he was just dealing with her return in the wrong way; she knew that it must have been a huge shock for him to suddenly find her there and all after not seeing her for so long. She had always thought that if she suddenly went back to him that he would welcome her with open arms and treat her like a princess, however she knew now that this was an unrealistic way of viewing the encounter.

She wasn't living in a fairy tale. She was living in a world where she was a wanted serial killer who had escaped from her mental hospital to find the man she loved – who was also a wanted serial killer. She couldn't have expected that everything would turn out the way she wanted it – if she could get what she wanted, she would remember her past, have her family and friends back, Jeff and her wouldn't be killers and they could have a normal, healthy relationship.

That was her dream, but it would never come true and that made her whimper more than anything else.

Now, it was morning. The teenager had been awoken by BEN and given her breakfast in bed – which happened to be pancakes covered with chocolate syrup that were made by Laughing Jack as an apology for Jeff's behaviour the night before. She had deeply appreciated the gesture, but she knew that it wouldn't make her happy. The only thing that could make her happy would be for her to be in Jeff's arms and for him to just accept her. She still thanked Laughing Jack when she went downstairs though; plus, she discovered that Laughing Jack was an amazing cook that day. Even just the smell of the pancakes was enough to make her drool.

Now, the girl was wondering the apartment grounds. She had never seen a place so big and so deserted before – or at least, she couldn't remember going to see one before. When she listened to the gossiping nurses of her hospital talk about her case – which they did quite a lot with her around – they said that some of her victims had been left for dead in a huge, abandoned house, but she didn't remember ever going there; she didn't even know how she would have known about such a place, since it was so far away from where she used to live. She just assumed that Jeff showed her where it was.

She made her way towards the same river that Jeff had been brooding with Laughing Jack the day before, although she had no idea that he had been there that day. The gentle ripples made a calming sound that actually allowed the murderous teenager to relax slightly as she stood next to a large tree and gazed into the surprisingly clear water.

Her reflection gazed back at her with confused eyes. She had no idea how she used to look when Jeff had first met her. She would have assumed that her hair was a lot shorter, since when she awoke at the hospital for the first time, her hair was shoulder-length. She fingered a lengthy strand of her dark, flowing hair and realised that she hadn't washed it in two days; washing her hair at the hospital always took two nurses due to how long it was, but she refused to cut it, which did annoy the nurses, but she didn't care. She wanted it to look nice for when she eventually escaped that dreadful place and saw her lost lover again.

Now, she realised that how she appeared didn't matter to him. It was all about him coping with the fact that she was actually there and figuring out how to act around her. She would have to stay calm and most importantly, stay _there_ and wait for him to be ready to speak with her.

She didn't want to lose him again.

"WATCH OUT!"

Suddenly, Jessie flinched and looked to her left, towards the apartment buildings. She made out a round object heading towards her that she couldn't recognise. Instinctively, she reached out and caught it perfectly.

It felt softer than she thought that it would, almost like rubber. Once she looked down towards what she had caught, she realised that it was a dirtied, rubber ball that was covered in mud, which got on her hands. She tilted her head at the ball and looked forward to the person who had thrown it in her direction.

She expected it to be a young boy or a group of guys who had been playing football with it, but it was the exact opposite. A young brunette in a blood-covered, rosy dress ran over to the killer, holding a teddy bear that was falling apart. Her long, curly hair was a mess and clearly hadn't been brushed through or washed for much longer than Jessie's – she now felt bad for complaining about hers. The young girl's face was covered in a deep, red liquid, just like her dress and she ran over wearing only browning, white socks on her feet. Her legs were scarred and covered in dried blood, as if she had just been on a hiking expedition.

She looked up at Jessie with deep, emerald eyes. She couldn't have been more than seven years old.

"I'm sowwy…" she said in a high-pitched voice. "I didn't mean to throw that bawl over here."

Jessie smiled at the young girl. Despite the blood and dirt, she was adorable in Jessie's eyes and she couldn't help, but grin. "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

The young girl giggled. "Are you Jessie Walker?"

Jessie jolted slightly, but kept smiling. "Yeah, I am."

The child pointed at herself. "I'm Sawwy."

"Sally?" For some reason, that name rang a bell in Jessie's mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She felt as though she had heard that name many times before, but she didn't know when or where. She ignored it. "Please to meet you."

"Do you want to play with me?" Sally asked joyfully.

"Of course." Jessie couldn't say no to such a cute child.

She handed Sally her ball back and the girl ran back towards the apartments, laughing and clearly wanting Jessie to follow her. She kept looking back to make sure that Jessie was heading in her direction, keeping the bouncy ball tightly in her hands. Jessie hadn't seen a child as cute as Sally in a while and kept beaming at the fact that she had seen someone as adorable as her and was playing with her.

So far, the people at the apartments had all be interesting, but she couldn't imagine that any of them would be killers like her or Jeff – Jeff seemed to be the only one who actually _looked _the part of a murderer and acted like one. She couldn't have imagined someone as nice as BEN being a killer. She couldn't imagine someone as fun as Laughing Jack being one either. Or someone as adorable as Sally, for that matter.

This was going to be an interesting experience for her, living with all these different people and finding out their stories and why they had become killers as they had.

Meanwhile, BEN walked outside of the apartments, looking for Jeff as he tended to do a lot. He didn't go into their room last night, since Eyeless Jack let him stay in his room as he slept alone. BEN hadn't checked for Jeff in his room, since that was the one place that Jeff tended to _not _be in, so he thought that he may as well not bother looking there.

He glanced to his side and noticed Jessie running towards his friend, Sally, who was laughing that adorable laugh that he loved so much. Sally turned around and threw a ball that she had in her hands towards Jessie, who let the ball bounce off of her head – or he liked to think that she let it hit her, since otherwise, her hand-eye coordination must have been awful. Jessie laughed in response and picked the ball up to throw back to Sally playfully. BEN couldn't help but smile at this display.

He was glad that Jessie was getting along with someone at the apartments, since Jeff was clearly avoiding her like the plague. He was happy that she wasn't giving up hope of staying there.

She was just as strong as he remembered her to be.

~:~

Jeff the Killer had not left his room since he awoke late that morning. He didn't leave the building, since he knew that BEN or anyone else would not think to look for him in his bedroom; he always left his room whenever he actually stayed around the apartment block, so he knew others would look for him elsewhere. If he was lucky, they would go to the city to look for him so that he could be completely alone and away from his fellow killers for a day, but he doubted that would happen – he never seemed to be allowed to be alone, unless he was the one who made it that way by running off somewhere.

His breakfast was a sandwich that he had left in the room's mini-fridge the day that he left for the city to kill; he had stolen the mini-fridge from one of his victims within the last few months for moments like this, when he didn't want to leave his room and wanted food. There had been days before he owned it where he would nearly starve and was forced to encounter other killers in the kitchen downstairs, but now he didn't have to starve or see anyone. He could be anti-social in peace. The sandwich wasn't fulfilling, but it would have to do, since he had nothing else in there. He could smell Laughing Jack's cooking from downstairs – which he had always loved secretly – but he couldn't possibly go down there and even _look_ at the demon clown after what he had done. He knew that Jessie would most likely be down there as well.

He couldn't face her the most of all.

The night before, the killer had promised to speak to his lost killing partner in his own time, but _only_ in his own time. He didn't want to be pressured into it, or have someone show up with her on his door step, like Laughing Jack had.

"That idiot…" he mumbled to himself as he sat on his bed, his head in his hands.

His emotions were confusing him beyond belief. He knew that he shouldn't have been even the tiniest bit upset or angered about seeing Jessie once again; she had been the love of his life, the one person who understood him and the most amazing girl that he had ever known and she was back in his life, ready to be with him and love him once more, but it wasn't going to be as easy as all that. It was almost too good to be true, seeing her again.

The consequences of Slenderman finding out about her being there would be horrific. No one had seen him for a couple of days, so he must have been hunting in the more urban areas for a while, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't be back soon and he wouldn't see Jessie wondering around the place. He could send her back to the hospital and forbid her from being there, with them easily if he wanted to. He could make her do some kind of messed up initiation test to see whether she was worthy of being there or not – which could include either killing someone or eating a body part, like they usually were. Jeff was certain that Jessie wouldn't do the latter. He could even restore her memories and let her decide whether she still wanted to be with them and live in the apartments, but the murderer almost knew that Jessie wouldn't want to after remembering everything.

Either way, Jessie wouldn't be there for very long when Slenderman got back from wherever he was. He couldn't allow himself to become too close to her again. She would leave soon enough.

He had spent so long trying to get used to her not being around and he was only _just _coping with not being with her after a year. He didn't know how much more of the mental torture he could take. First, he was separated from her for a year, and then he gets to see her again, but she has no memories of him and will have to leave the apartments soon anyway.

He had to admit that when she first showed up to his home, and he first looked into those deep, brown eyes for the first time in too long, and he saw how long that silky, dark hair had grown after all the time that they had spent apart, and he saw her awkward smile once again, his heart fluttered and skipped a beat. It felt as though he had fallen in love all over again. He could feel his cheeks reddening and his blood flowing through his body, as if he were making the best kill of his life. The urge to just grab her and hold her there so strong that it took everything within his being to resist doing so.

To him, she looked even more beautiful than the day that he had met her, with her white vest and chequered, blue shorts. Her hair was more stunning than ever before and her eyes were more adorable than he remembered them; her caramel skin was more milky than he had ever seen and her figure had developed even more than it had when he had last seen her – which he didn't think was possible. He just wanted to touch her face and press his lips onto hers, feel her warmth – feel _any _warmth for the first time since she had left his life. His hands in hers. His body against hers.

He wanted her more than she could ever know.

He was forced to stay away from the girl that he loved more than anything, but all he wanted to do was march up to her, take her in his arms bridal style and carry her to his room, to do as he wanted with her. He hated to admit it, but as a man, he had missed her sexually just as much as emotionally. None of the sluts that he had killed and taken had been anything like Jessie. Her innocence was overwhelming and her body was as soft as silk; she had the most amazing body and a perfect face to go with it. He remembered the first night that they had made love and how she cried because of John and his friends raping her together and how she begged him to have sex with her. He pitied her so much that night, but he couldn't help but think that that had been the most amazing night of his life.

He had to admit it.

He wanted to be with her right there and then.

"Why are you so sad?"

"Ah!" Jeff yelled out, startled.

He fell backwards on his bed as he saw Laughing Jack stood in front of him, his large hands behind his back and a grin on his face. Jeff hadn't even heard him come into the room, meaning that he teleported in – he needed to tell him to stop doing that. Jeff would get a heart attack one of these day between him and Slenderman. The killer had wished that no one would disturb him, but the most annoying of his friends had managed to find him before anyone else had.

"What the hell do you want, clown?" Jeff growled.

"I wanted to check up on you." Jack stated happily. "I made you some breakfast, but you never came downstairs."

"I wasn't hungry…thanks to a certain someone."

Jack's face dropped at the comment and he began to look almost sympathetic towards his murderous friend. He didn't understand why he was taking this attitude with him, let alone Jessie as well. He thought that Jeff would be happy if Jessie were here to be with him and yet, it had just made him even more irritable – which didn't seem possible considering how he had been since Jessie had left in the first place.

"I don't understand you, Jeff." the demon clown began. "I know that you're worried about what will happen when Slendy gets back, but don't. I'm sure that he'll let Jessie stay. He doesn't have a reason not to."

"You don't know that." Jeff stated. "She would have rather have killed herself than live here a year ago. Slendy will want to check that she actually _wants _to be here or that she's just pretending for whatever reason."

"You'll only have to look outside to get your answer to that." Jack gestured outside of Jeff's window, with joy in his eyes. "She's playing with Sally and BEN right now. I think their playing soccer or catch. She looked like she's pretty happy here. She's getting along with Sally and BEN perfectly well…and she gets along with me okay too. She even ate the breakfast that I had cooked and thanked me for it."

"She was just being polite, you dumb shit." Jeff blurted out. The murderer remembered that Jessie was a very polite girl and saying thanks to Laughing Jack wasn't unlike her personality. "And a rock could get along with Sally. I'll bet that the kid approached _her _and she just followed along because she's a child…and BEN…he's just a nosy prat."

Jack's expression went blank. "He's your friend. He's trying to help."

"Well, I've had enough of his help _and_ yours." Jeff got to his feet and made his way towards the door to his room. "I'm heading out for a bit."

"Where are you going?" Jack asked, concerned.

"It's a fabulous place called: none of your business." Jeff replied in a sarcastic tone. "Don't follow me this time or I'll beat the shit out of you."

He opened the door to his room and stepped out, hoping that the clown would do as he asked, but he doubted that his hopes would actually occur. Jack was too much of a nuisance to get rid of _that_ easily. He looked left to see whether anyone like BEN or Slenderman were waiting for him outside of his room, waiting for him to come out – it wouldn't have surprised him.

His eyes were fixed on a certain someone who he didn't expect to see. Jessie was stood in front of the room next to his, which happened to be Eyeless Jack's room. BEN had stayed in there the night before and the gaming blond was heading into the room with Sally, who was holding a dirty bouncy ball. They were all laughing. BEN was talking about a video game that he wanted to play with them and Sally was bouncing the dirty ball on the already filthy floor of the hallways as she walked through to the room.

"That sounds like fun!" Jessie stated excitedly. "I can't wait to play it! I haven't played a video game before…as far as I can remember."

In the moment, Jessie glanced to her right and noticed Jeff standing in the hallway. Both of their hearts skipped a beat as they looked upon each other's gaze. Jessie's face became crimson as Jeff's became rosy – it would have gone the same colour as Jessie's had Jeff's skin not have been so unrealistically pale. Neither knew what to do or how to act or what to say to one another. They simply stood in the awkward silence, wishing that someone or something would break it.

Their prayers were answered with Sally calling Jessie from BEN's temporary room. "Come on Jessie! We're gonna play Call of Doo-Doo!"

"It's Call of _Duty_, Sally." BEN corrected.

Jessie jolted and looked back into the room. "I'm coming."

She remembered what she had heard Jeff say the night before and didn't do what she wanted to do – run over to him and give him the biggest hug that she could manage. She needed to keep her distance from him until he was ready to speak to her, as difficult a job as that was turning out to be. If she wanted them to have any chance of a future relationship, then she would need to make him feel as comfortable about her presence as possible – and that meant no speaking to him. She couldn't act down about it either. She needed to act warm and loving, just not directly.

She simply looked back at her love, smiled at him and went into the room, closing the door behind her.

Jeff nearly collapsed. He hadn't seen a smile so sweet and cute for such a long time and it surprised him; his spirit felt uplifted somehow and he couldn't move from his spot at all. His heart was on fire and so were his cheeks.

"_She's still…so cute…" _he thought to himself.

Laughing Jack came out of the room behind the love-struck killer and sighed. "You clearly want to go and talk to her. She's just waiting on _you_, you know."

Jeff jolted and came out of his daze. "Shut up!"

He stormed off once again, making his way down the stairs. Laughing Jack didn't follow him and simply watched him walk away; he knew that speaking to him when he was like this would just result in another fight or argument and _those _just ended in one of them getting hurt and nothing being resolved. The clown simply crossed his arms and stood by the door, wondering how he could cheer Jeff up and how he could get him to talk to Jessie.

As Jeff made his way out of the front doors to the apartment, he gritted his teeth and growled, not caring what Hoody and Masky were thinking as he walked past them; they whispered something to each other, but Jeff ignored him. He didn't have time to threaten them. He wanted to get away from the apartments as quickly as he could.

Laughing Jack was right.

He wanted Jessie.

He wanted her so badly.

Tears began to well up in his eye-lidless eyes as he walked away from the building that contained the woman that he adored and he wiped them away with the back of his hand. He suddenly stopped walking and paused to look back at the apartments.

He could still go back. He could run to Eyeless Jack's room, take Jessie away and lock her into his room with him. He could kiss her and ravish her neck, undress her and feel the immense closeness of being inside of her; he could become one with her, even if it was just for that one moment. He could have that time with her.

But he didn't.

He kept walking, weeping and not looking back again.


	13. Chapter 12: Closer

**Hey guys,**

**Long time no see. Sorry that I haven't uploaded in a while. School can be blamed for that. Coursework and mocks...God, they make us work too hard.**

**Also, you'll notice that this chapter is quite long. I actually had to cut this chapter in half because it ended up being way too long. I'll upload the other help when I've finished editing it and have uploaded in my other stories too. Not too much happens in the chapter, but I hope that you enjoy it anyway :)**

**On another note, in _Jeff the Killer: Not Expected_, I mentioned that I found a song that went perfectly with Jeff and Jessie's relationship, which was "No Matter What" by Papa Roach. Well, I found one that goes with them perfectly in _this _sequel. It's called "Dark Paradise" by Lana Del Ray. I really recommend it. It really mirrors Jessie want for Jeff to be with her and how Jeff can't forget Jessie.**

**Anyway, I'll let you guys read :)**

**~Ciao **

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**Chapter Twelve**

**Closer**

In the bright and vibrant state of Florida, Antony and Dan wondered down the pin-tree covered sidewalk, both sweating from the excessive heat and the fact that they were forced to walk to their destinations; Charlotte's parents may have been wealthy, but she wasn't about to waste their money renting a car when the three of them could walk around and grab taxis for cheaper. It was spring time, so back in England, the weather was morphing from rain to sun to wind and back to rain again every few hours; the two British men were not used to that kind of heat after living in one of the wettest countries for so long and experiencing the extreme weather changes that England had to offer.

Dan had almost forgotten what it was like to feel the blazing, American sun on his pale skin – after spending the majority of his time indoors and looking at a computer screen all day, he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle being outside in this kind of weather for too long. He thanked the Lord that the place that they were heading to was inside and most probably had air conditioning. Anthony had never been outside of his home country before, so he was definitely not expecting the shimmering ball of gas in the sky to affect him as much as it was.

They weren't with Dan's younger sister because the team had split up to find out different pieces of information; Anthony was kind of glad about this, since the sibling's arguments were starting to make him feel uncomfortable. Plus, she insisted on going to her destination alone. Charlotte was better than the boys at more emotional based tasks, where she was forced to create a rapport with whoever she was speaking to, so she chose the task that required those policewoman skills of hers. Anthony and Dan were given the task of gather information from people that didn't need any emotional support or comfort at all and who they wouldn't have liked to give it to anyway – the Jeff the Killer fan-club.

Charlotte had called up the club at the airport on the way to Florida and asked the group's leader if they could join one of their meetings the day after they landed; the reason why Anthony and Dan didn't call them was because they didn't want to speak to people who were fans of Jeff the Killer. That murderer had killed people close to both of them and they had no idea why others would support him in what he did; this wasn't the best attitude to have when visiting the club head-quarters, but they couldn't let Charlotte do both jobs alone. She wouldn't stop complaining about how useless they both were otherwise. The leader said that they were allowed to visit them as long as only two of them came along; he seemed very secretive about the club and its members over the phone. He didn't even want to tell Charlotte his name. So, earlier that day, the three of them divided up. Charlotte went to visit a member of Jeff the Killer's old neighbourhood – one of his old classmates – to gather more information about his past that might help them figure out where he might be now or what his weaknesses might be. They could have a better chance of catching him and Jessie that way.

"I don't know why Charlotte couldn't have come with us." Anthony sighed as he walked in the incredible heat.

"It'll save time to have her do her thing while we do ours." Dan replied with. "I'm sure that a kid like you could even understand that."

Anthony scowled. Dan had still refused to call him by his actual name and kept insulting him while he defiled his identity; it had grown worse since they had left the hotel and set off on their adventure by themselves. It was as if anything the teenager said was liable to be insulted. He couldn't even speak without being extremely conscious of what he said around this man. To Anthony, Dan seemed like the type of person that Sally would have loved to punch in the face.

Suddenly, the brunette stopped thinking about Dan's annoying presence and remembered that Sally still hadn't spoken to him or showed any signs of being around since their argument. Once he had fallen asleep the night previous, when they actually arrived at the hotel, he had a dreamless sleep once more, without Sally even showing her face. He was beginning to miss her smile and her voice – even her shouting and physical abuse that she gave out when she was angered.

He had spent two days without his dead best friend already and he wasn't liking it. Since the day that she came to him as a ghost, Anthony had made a promise that he would appreciate having her around to the fullest; previous to that, he had thought that he's lost his best friend and would never see her again. It had even prompted him to attempt suicide, but once he knew that she had come back to him, he kept alive for her and hoped that she would stay with him forever. She could have been a fragment of his imagination, however he didn't care. He would have chosen being insane and getting to talk to her and see her every night than being sane and alone. Nothing could take her away and he saw it as a remarkable gift that she had come back to him and only him.

He only now realised that she must have felt very alone at that moment. The only person that she could talk to or associate herself with was Anthony. She tried to leave his sight and go and see her family, but she couldn't get away from Anthony's presence; some force was stopping her from leaving him. She either had to stay within his subconscious or following him around as an invisible being. Anthony had to visit her parents and give his condolences in order for her to see her brothers and her mother and father; the teen remembered her crying to him in his dream that night and saying that she hoped that they would be alright. Every now and then, Anthony would stop by her house so that she could check up on them, but eventually, she asked him to leave it and let them get on with their lives. The ghost girl knew that they would move on eventually and she would need to do the same.

Hesitantly, Anthony remembered that Sally was all he had, but it was the other way around too. She must have hated not speaking with him, even if that was only because he was the only person that she could talk to or make any kind of contact with. She was important to him and he needed to fix the situation somehow so that the two of them wouldn't be alone.

No one else understood what he had gone through with Jessie and Jeff, and with all the trauma that he faced during that period in his life, he needed to speak to someone about it all without them assuming that he was crazy. She was the only person who was there for him and who let him cry to her every once in a while; she was his best friend and he had royally pissed her off.

"_I just wish that she would at least let me know that she's actually there." _He thought to himself. _"If she ever disappeared for real…I don't know what I would do. Losing Jessie was bad enough, but I can't lose Sally again…not again."_

"What?" Dan groaned.

Anthony paused as Dan stopped walking and glared at the younger boy. The glasses-wearer blinked in confusion. "What? What did I do?"

"You look like I've upset you." The angered man crossed his arms and continued to glare. Anthony knew that he couldn't explain why he was actually upset, but he thought that maybe he would be able to use Sally as a way to make Dan feel sympathy for him and leave him alone for a little while – he couldn't stand his insults anymore. He felt mean towards Sally for doing it, but she was mad at him anyway; it wouldn't make much of a difference if she was slightly more irritated at him for using her to gain sympathy points from someone that she would hate.

"It wasn't that." he stated, looking down to the floor. "I was just thinking about my friend, Sally. She would love to be here, in Florida."

"Sally?" Dan asked. "That's one of your friends that Jeff killed, right?"

Anthony hesitantly nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. When I think about her, I get really down."

Dan turned around instantly and continued walking, as if what Anthony had said didn't actually matter. The teenager jolted and looked up to watch him wondering away from him with irritation. He didn't think that Dan was really the type of person to simply walk away from a conversation that was upsetting to his fellow converser. Anthony didn't know if he knew how insulting he was being, but he couldn't stop wondering why he didn't at least say something like "I'm sorry…" and walk off instead. It wouldn't have taken much effort and at the very least, it would have displayed that the man had a heart.

"Don't think about it." Dan finally said. "That's what I tend to do. It saves you from the pain."

Anthony stared at the back of his partner in crime, wondering what caused him to become so cold when talking about anything other than Jeff himself; he even spoke roughly to his younger sister. Anthony knew that as siblings, they didn't have the best relationship, but most siblings didn't. Anthony may have been an only child, but having Jessie around him constantly made him realise that younger sisters could be really irritating, but you loved them no matter what and had to, at least sometimes, treat them nicely – although, he treated Jessie with kindness quite a lot, so he guessed that it wasn't the same as having an actual sister.

He took a few steps forward, following Dan. "How do you forget something so horrific and scary? Something so…terrible…?"

Dan stopped walking, but didn't turn around; his hands went into his pockets and he sighed. "Concentrate more on your revenge, kid. It'll get you further."

Anthony's heart skipped a beat. "Revenge…?"

"I'm not stupid." Dan's voice became rough. "You want to find Jeff to kill him, right? Jessie too?"

Anthony's eyes widened and he wondered how in the world Dan knew of his plan. He told no one but Sally and hadn't mentioned it when he was awake, so the policewoman's brother had no way of finding out about his plan. He may have just been able to tell from the look in his eyes and made a guess at what his intentions were, like Charlotte had when he first saw her that spring. His heart was beating at a hundred miles a minute and he didn't feel as though he could speak. Charlotte and Dan both seemed to know him better than he knew himself, and it was creeping him out.

"Look…" Dan continued as he turned back around. "I don't care if you want to kill Jeff or Jessie. A lot of people want to. Their victims' families for example, would be happy if their existences were wiped off the face of the earth, but I would keep if from Charlotte if I were you. She wouldn't approve…and I won't tell her under one condition."

Anthony swallowed some saliva loudly. "W-W-What is that…?"

Dan smiled. "You let me have Jeff."

Anthony jolted. "What?"

"Why do you think I'm here? I want Jeff the Killer to get the hell off of my planet and stop breathing the same air as me. He killed my best friend and he is going to pay if the authorities can't catch him. I won't stand by as others are killed and the police sit on their arses and arrest people for loitering or underage drinking, but don't bother catching a mass-murderer who had escaped the country and come back already."

"You want to kill him too?!" Anthony was flabbergasted. He had never expected this turn of events.

Charlotte made this seem as though the mission was to bring Jessie back to England with them and maybe catch Jeff in the process, but that was it; it seemed as though it was her policewoman duty to make sure that she captured Jessie Walker and brought her back to a hospital that she couldn't escape from this time. She was safer in her own country and with people who could try and understand her murderous condition. Charlotte's motives for catching her were noble and clearly honest. Dan just seemed as though he was coming along for the ride and to watch her catch Jessie and maybe Jeff, for what he did to his best friend.

Although, come to think of it, Anthony hadn't really known about Dan's motives properly; he knew that Jeff had murdered his best friend, but that was the extent of what he actually knew about why he was in America with Charlotte and him. He had been going on assumptions for the majority of the time.

"Of course." Confidently, Dan took a few steps closer and held his hand open. "You can take Jessie out for all I care, but I want to see the look of Jeff's face as he takes his last breath. I want to be the one to kill that mother fucker. Do we have a deal?"

At a moment like this, the teenager wished that Sally were around to guide him through this situation, like she would do most of the time when she was alive; he remembered that her advice on matters always turned out to be the best thing that he could ever listen to. She would even beat his parents, in terms of being wise, but now, he couldn't even get a sign from her as to what he should do. She may not have agreed with Jessie being killed, but she would have at least told him whether he should listen to Dan or not. She was always the one out of the two of them who could put her personal feelings aside and make a decision that would help the situation and not only help her alone. This was one more reason as to why he wished that she was speaking to him. He had no idea what he should do.

Dan didn't seem like the kind of person that Anthony would usually trust or put any kind of faith into, but on the other hand, he also hadn't given him any reason to not trust him as of yet. Anthony had a raging feeling within his stomach that he shouldn't put such faith into someone that he had only met a couple of days previous, but he also couldn't tell whether Dan was someone to commit a crime like this with.

He had no idea how Dan had planned to kill Jeff the Killer. Anthony hadn't really thought about how he wanted to murderer the murderer as of yet, but he had an idea as to how he could manage it without there being too much of a problem. The fact that Jeff knew him already – and Anthony had already punched the killer in the face, which he was quite proud of – meant that he would be surprised to see him; especially considering that Anthony lived in England and it would have taken a hell of a lot of effort for him to actually locate Jeff. Jessie wouldn't be shocked at all, since she had lost her memory and wouldn't know who Anthony was when she saw him. Although, he could use the surprise that Jeff would feel to sneakily stab him or shoot him, since Charlotte has brought her police firearms with her on this trip; however, how Dan planned on killing Jeff, he had no idea.

"How do you plan on doing this?" Anthony asked.

Dan scoffed, keeping his hand open, expecting for Anthony to simply take his deal and stop asking him questions. "That's between me and that dead fuck's face. Now, do we have a deal?"

Anthony thought this through for a few moments. The main problem that he saw with this plan was Dan's attitude towards him; he refused to tell him his plan and didn't communicate with him well at all. Plus, Anthony didn't know him from Adam. The teen had no idea how he was supposed to trust someone that wouldn't talk to him, except to insult him, and who he didn't know well. When coming up with a plan this important and life-threatening, one would usually trust their partner in crime with their life and never doubt them, but Anthony couldn't say that he felt trust or had no doubt in Dan.

On the other hand, since Sally was refusing to talk to him and he couldn't ask Charlotte for help on this matter, he was alone when it came to finding Jeff and Jessie to take them out. He needed all the help that he could get. He may have been determined to go ahead with this plan of his, but he had never killed before; he didn't know if he really had it in him to take care of the two murderers and walk away with no regrets and no remorse. He was convinced that after Jessie began her killing spree, she would have felt some distress and regret for what she had done; Sally had even told him that she refused to actually kill her and that Jeff was the one who had finished the job. He didn't have much confidence in himself when it came to his self-made mission. He wondered if Dan could help him with that.

Plus, there was the fact that Dan had mentioned not telling Charlotte about his plan if he was allowed to be involved. Charlotte was a police woman and could arrest Anthony for planning this homicide if she discovered what he was going to do, even if the two people that he was planning on murdering were killers themselves; she had explained before the three of them landed in the land of the free that she only planned on taking them out if it was a matter of self-defence and there were no other exceptions. He could never tell her about the plan and he was convinced that Dan was implying that he would if he didn't involve him in the plan. He had no reason not to believe the threat; Dan didn't give a damn about Anthony and didn't seem like the type of person to be nice to people who he had just met – he couldn't even be kind towards his own sister, so there was no chance of him showing kindness towards Anthony.

The brunette exhaled exaggeratedly. "Fine."

He took Dan's hand, causing the man to beam. "Great. You won't regret that."

There was a part of Anthony that made him feel as though he would regret what he had just done, but he didn't want to admit that to his new partner in crime. He had to give in to him if he wanted his mission to be fulfilled, but the Lord knew that he didn't want to agree to it.

"Yeah…" he mumbled quietly.

~:~

"Welcome to the club, boys!"

The two had finished up their conversation and walked the rest of the way to the centre in silence. Anthony wasn't all too keen to discuss their plan to kill Jeff and Jessie any more than they already had and Dan just simply didn't feel like talking to Anthony – which wasn't all that surprising to the British adolescent. Despite the fact that the two of them had just agreed to committing one of the most dangerous crimes imaginable, they refused to act as though they mattered to one another or even spoke to one another; Anthony had regretted telling Dan about his plan and allowing him to be a part of it now, since he couldn't even talk with him about it – or anything for that matter.

Once they reached the centre that the Jeff the Killer fan club was always held at, a young, scruffy teenager was standing outside the place, waiting for them to get there. He wore a _Skillet _t-shirt and baggy jeans, which both seemed so wrinkly and rough that it wouldn't have been wrong to assume that he had been wearing them for a few days at the very least. His prickly stubble seemed to be very advanced for a teenager, but it also showed that he hadn't shaved in a while as well. Anthony cringed at the unkempt appearance of the teen, who he assumed was around his age; Dan didn't seem fazed by him, since he spent the majority of his life inside, on the computer. He knew what it was like to not wash and change his clothes for days and even weeks on end – even when Charlotte nagged him about it and insulted him by calling him 'dirty'. On the other hand, Anthony was one for washing every day, going outside and regularly changing and washing his clothes.

Although, he didn't allow this to influence the way that he spoke to the stranger. He even smiled at him and reached his hand for the teen to shake it. "Hi. Are you the leader of the club?"

The new acquaintance took Anthony's hand and shook it excitedly with a large grin on his face. "Why, yes I am! I'm Andrew Riggs, but everyone calls me Andy. Love the British accent by the way!"

There was a slight awkwardness stemming in Anthony's heart which he knew stemmed from his anti-social attitude, but he also felt a glimmer of relief that the club leader was so outgoing and seemed nice; he was expecting someone dark and dreary, who wouldn't even really want to speak with people outside of their club. For someone who spent a huge amount of his time following a serial killer, Andrew seemed very upbeat and cheerful.

The British teenager laughed uncomfortably as he took his hand back. "Thanks. I'm Anthony."

"I'm Dan." Dan stated bluntly and abruptly, not even looking at Andrew, with his hands in his pockets.

Andrew clapped his hands together. "Great! Although, I thought that the person I talked to was a woman. She sounded really cute."

Dan gave the American a death glare like nothing Anthony had ever seen from him in the short time that he had known the shut-in; it was almost as if flames were emulating from his body and he would be happy to drag Andrew down to hell with him and hand him over to the devil himself. At least Anthony knew that Dan was overprotective of his younger sister and didn't simply not care about who tried to date her – even if Anthony was sure that Andrew's comment was simply a small statement and that he had no intension of actually trying to date Charlotte. He wouldn't get to anyway, since she had a fiancé.

Dan's attitude reminded Anthony of how he used to act with Jessie. Guys would make comments about her being adorable and attractive constantly and he would attempt to keep those same guys away from her as much as he could. The difference between Charlotte and Jessie was that Jessie was oblivious and single, so her getting into dangerous situations wasn't an impossible thought to have for Anthony, which she had proved with her incident with John, not that Anthony wanted to think about that; however, Charlotte was more mature and engaged. He could just imagine her turning down this guy if he asked her out without any hesitation, but Jessie wouldn't know what to do or say.

"T-That was my buddy, Charlotte." Anthony began with a stutter. "She's Dan's sister. She had something else to do, so she won't be joining us today."

"Ah, that's alright." Andrew laughed, calming Dan's attitude. "Well, I guess that since you're all who we're expecting, we can go inside."

The stranger turned around and began to walk inside of the large building, the automatic doors opening for him as he wondered through; the residents seemed to be quite new, but deserted. Dan and Anthony walked through behind their new acquaintance, looking around to see if there was anything suspicious about the place; Charlotte had warned them that secret societies and clubs, such as this one, usually met in places of extreme filth and that were worn out so as to not have anyone interrupt their meetings; plus, she told them to make sure that if they saw anything sceptical, that they needed to tell her immediately through text, if they could. They might not be able to use phones in the place due to the club's secrecy, so they would need to keep the unusual behaviour in their heads and simply tell her later on if they couldn't contact her. She was a policewoman after all and she needed to make sure that no illegal activities were happening in her presence.

Although, on the contrary, the building seemed to be perfectly in check. There was a reception desk at the entrance that was made of mahogany; the wood shone in the reflection of the revolving doors and the visible sun outside. The walls were covered in fancy paintings and photographs of famous people from the country; the carpet floor was spotless and not a single part of it stood out. There was no dirt as far as they could tell. As the two Brits glanced around, they realised how modern and clean the place looked; it was also very large and looked almost like a company building, or even the apartment that Dan lived in, back in the UK.

The only thing that seemed even remotely suspicious was the fact that the place was so quiet and they could see no one, but Andrew who hung around the place. Anthony decided to comment on this fact. "Are your club members the only ones who stay in this building? It's deserted."

Andrew turned his head as he continued to guide the two through a long corridor. "Yeah, we are. The building was built a year ago and we keep it clean. Before that, we met in each other's houses. We switched whose house it would be every week. The host would have to buy sweets and whatnot for us all."

Anthony gave an awkward laugh as Dan took in the information. He refused to speak, but he was making sure to absorb every last detailed that he could. "So, why would no one else rent out the building? It's almost like it's new."

"Well, in all honesty, people are scared of the place because we're in it." Andrew gave a grim smile. "No one wants to be in a building that has people who research killers in it. It's like they think that we're friends with Jeff or something. None of us have had the pleasure to meet him like your friend, Jessie Walker did."

Anthony jolted and almost stopped walking. Dan pushed him gently so that he would keep going; he didn't want anything to interrupt the meeting or cause them to have to leave. This was a good opportunity and he didn't want it wasted.

Despite this, Anthony swallowed some saliva. "You know about her?"

"Of course…" Andrew smiled wider. "We know everything about Jeff's life and the people that met him. You met him too, right, Anthony?"

A sudden burst of irritation flew through Anthony's body as he gritted his teeth; he refused to even think about his encounter with Jeff, let alone speak with someone else about it, other than Sally. He wasn't proud of the way that he met Jeff the Killer and he wished many a time that it had never happened and that it was just an extremely vivid nightmare; he even wanted to forget punching him in the face, despite how good it felt. Whenever the new reporters asked him about the whole incident, he gave an angered response and refused to tell them anything. He wouldn't make an exception for anyone.

Dan noticed the anger in Anthony's face and answered for him. "He did, but he doesn't like talking about it. You have to remember that Jessie was his best friend and he lost her to him."

Anthony winced and instantly lost his angered expression and replaced it with a shocked one; Dan had actually helped him out of a bad situation and tried to defend him, in a way. His heart rate calmed down and he sighed silently, grateful that he didn't have to speak about Jeff or Jessie to this person; he didn't mind discussing Jeff generally, but he wanted to avoid speaking about Jessie or the killer on a personal level.

Andrew laughed softly. "I'm sorry. It's just that here, we always end up talking about this stuff. Jessie Walker was just like us once. She research killers, right? She probably felt scared and excited when she met Jeff. That might even be why she fell in love with him."

Instantly, the Jeff fan-club leader paused in front of a door and smiled; Anthony wanted to ask how he knew that Jessie fell in love with Jeff, but he didn't get the chance before they arrived at their destination. "Well, here we are."

The moment that he stated this, Dan grabbed Anthony's arm and whispered gently into his ear. "Look, buddy. I wanna find out this stuff no matter what, so you had better keep this anger to yourself and look at the big picture of all this: information. Got it?"

Andrew turned around, still smiling. "What was that?"

"Nothing, Andy." Dan responded with, acting like he hadn't just had a sudden outburst a second before.

Anthony glared at his partner in crime and noticed that he had a look on his face that showed that he wouldn't be taking anything from the teen that day and that Anthony had better not annoy him; he wanted the information that the club had to offer and nothing else matter to him. Anthony should have known that he wouldn't be defended by Dan simply based on the fact that he was working together with him' he was just someone that he had to be around until he could get his revenge.

"Yeah. Nothing." Anthony sighed.

"Okay." Andrew joyfully stated as he opened the door to the club room.

The two men wondered at the room that they were following Andrew in to. Anthony had his mouth hanging open and Dan scowled with disbelief. The room looked almost identical to his apartment; the only difference was that there were more people in there. Newspaper articles and pictures of Jeff were scattered around the walls and the floor. Men and women of different, varying ages were sitting across the room, on laptops, reading the newspapers or articles that were laying on the ground and looking at photographs; none of them noticed that Andrew and the two had just walked in – well, either that or they didn't acknowledge the fact that they had.

"This is the club room." Andrew guided his arms to display the room and show it off to his guests. "Where the magic happens and the creepiness is in full blast. Still want to come in?"

Dan pushed past Anthony roughly. "Why wouldn't we? This isn't anything."

Anthony laughed, despite Dan's sudden rudeness. "Yeah, Dan's room is actually just like this."

The Jeff-obsessed man glared daggers at Anthony for letting his secret out – even though he didn't tell him that it was a secret in the first place. He didn't want the club thinking that he was like them – he didn't want to research into killers and wander at their abilities, he wanted to get revenge. There was a major difference as far as he could tell.

"Wow…" Andrew actually looked impressed. "If you weren't living in England, I'd ask you to join the club."

Dan shivered at the idea. "Don't worry about it. We just want to find out information."

"Of course." The leader of the group pulled a newspaper article off of the couch beside him; the object was so covered in papers that Anthony couldn't even tell that it was a couch. He assumed that it was just a large pile of paper; the teen wondered how people could live like this. "What do you want to know?"


	14. Chapter 13: Cherry Blossom

**Hey there, guys,**

**So, here is another chapter and I hope that you enjoy it. I have half term now, so I'm on a break from school for a week and a bit. I'll have a lot more free time to write and should have another chapter up soon enough. This one has more emotional stuff about Jessie and Jeff, but nothing too heart-wrenching this time.**

**I would have uploaded sooner, but I had to deal with some personal stuff for the last couple of days. Hopefully, that stuff won't come back and I won't a delay in the next upload. I'll enjoy writing the next one for you guys (^_^)**

**~Ciao**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Cherry Blossom**

The apartments may have been deserted and unkempt, but the almost dead trees did still thrive at certain times of the year; spring was upon the killers who lived within the abandoned buildings and the monster-children were playing outside, among the cherry blossoms. The rosy leafs fell from the trees and flew through the air, infecting the area with a light shaded pink; the sun glistened as brightly as the light that surgeons used during operations and Jessie was feeling the heat like she had hadn't felt it in a year. Being trapped in a hospital building all day made her miss the sun and its rays hitting her skin, even if the heat was sometimes unbearable. It was better than being stuck inside for – what seemed like – all eternity.

"One…two…three…"

Sally was counting while leaning her head and arms against a withering tree; she was covering her face so as to not see where everyone else was hiding from her. BEN had mentioned to Jessie that the apartments were large enough to have amazing games of hide and seek, since the area also had large forests near it and bushes all around. Not all of the plants around the apartments were sterile and some were even beautiful to Jessie. Since hearing this, she suggested playing a game of hide and seek to experience the fun; she couldn't remember her childhood all too well, but she recalled playing this game with a boy when she was younger. She couldn't make out his face, but she remembered that he had glasses. The games were always a great deal of fun and she wanted to re-live that for a while, in order to temporally forget her worried and troubles.

BEN, Sally and Laughing Jack all agreed to play the game. Jack had spent the morning trying to get Jeff to speak to him and gave up; if he was wasting his time attempting to grab his friend's forgiveness, then he may as well have ran off and played games instead. BEN always played with Sally when he had the time and wasn't too busy worrying about where Jeff was, so he decided to join in as well. Since Jessie had come to live with them, the killer hadn't left the area or gone to the city to make a kill, so the blond gamer didn't feel as though he had much to worry about when it came to Jeff and his whereabouts.

Sally began counting – at the result of losing an intense game of rock, paper scissors – and the killers all ran off in different directions.

Jessie had picked up a pair of denim shorts from the wardrobe in her room and they had managed to fit perfectly, without looking too revealing – she was lucky, since this game needed her to be able to run away quickly and hide without an awkward dress slowing her down. She had also picked up a crimson t-shirt with _Hollywood Undead_ written on it – not that Jessie knew who or what that title meant. Luckily, there had also been some bras laying around the room that she had picked up; her breasts were starting to feel sore after not wearing one for so long while running around. At the hospital, she was unable to wear one for safety reasons because of the under-wiring, but they allowed her to wear a sports bra since she was a good patient and did as they had told her. The day that she ran away from the place, she had misplaced it in her room and had to leave without it. Being able to run around in normal clothes felt so refreshing and her chest being held up by a proper bra felt incredible.

She ran in the direction of the large bushes, knowing that she could hide in there with no problems; Laughing Jack ended up going in the same direction as her by chance, while BEN sprinted into the buildings.

There was a massive, vibrant, verdant bush with a gap in the side of it that Jessie knew she could fit through; she turned her head to Laughing Jack and signalled for the two of them to hide in there. He nodded to show that he understood what she meant by the signal and they practically jumped into the bush.

In the distance, Sally could be heard counting still.

"Nine…ten…eleven…"

Knowing that once the young girl reached twenty, she would be on the prowl, searching for them, the two hurried up and ducked, sliding into the hole. There was a small amount of space in the place, meaning that Jack's tall exterior would be forced to squeeze in, next to Jessie. The clown sat cross-legged as Jessie pushed her knees into her chest and held them there with her hands. The teenager couldn't help but giggle as she realised how much her heart was throbbing and how much excitement was running through her. She hadn't had so much fun in a long while and was glad that she had suggested playing this game.

It was a shock to see Laughing Jack following her into the bushes and deciding to hide with her; she suddenly felt bad for the lonely BEN, who was hiding all by himself, although being a killer, he should have been used to hiding from police or witnesses of his murders by himself. She couldn't imagine the young blond having to do something so criminal, but that wasn't a shock. He was a child after all and she couldn't remember how he was before she lost her memory. He could have shown signs of being a killer and she wouldn't have even known it. Although, she would have thought that if the murderers around her were actually killers, than they wouldn't be playing with her in a garden, like they were right then.

There was still disbelief in Jessie's mind that Sally was actually a killer. She was such a sweet and adorable, little girl that she couldn't have imagined her going around, taking people's lives. She seemed so innocent – despite her bloodied body, face and clothing – that Jessie suspected that she didn't even know what death was. Even if she looked as though she had been violently murdered herself, she was still a child and a cute one at that.

"_I wonder where Jeff is…" _Jessie thought to herself as she sat with Laughing Jack. _"Maybe he would lighten up more if he played a game with us too."_

There was a wonder in Jessie's mind as to when or how she would be able to speak to him again; she had made the promise to herself that she would be patient and wait until he was ready to talk to her, but time was ticking and the more that she knew he was around the area and wasn't speaking to her, the more she wondered _why_ he hadn't. She had now been at the apartments for two days and he didn't even seem interested in making amends with her for whatever she did to him before she lost her memory. She couldn't even imagine what she could have possibly done to him to make him hate her so much, but it must have been horrific.

Reluctantly, she wished that he would come and play with them – the reluctance was due to the fact that she didn't know whether he would actually have fun or simply brood the whole time. She hadn't spent time with him at all since she had arrived there and he was the whole reason that she had escaped from the mental hospital and travelled half way around the world to these worn out buildings in the first place. It was true that she had gained a new home and new friends through her journey, but what she really wanted was the man that she loved to spend time with her and help her understand who she really was.

"Jessie…" Laughing jack whispered, grabbing the contemplative killer's attention while being careful not to let Sally find the two of them. "Are you having fun?"

She smiled at her clown friend and giggled. "Of course I am. I haven't played hide and seek for a while, as far as I can remember, but it's still fun."

The demon sighed. "Good…I was worried that you were upset."

She titled her head. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, you have a very sad look on your face."

Jessie jolted, realising that she was displaying her emotions. She desperately didn't want to show that the situation with Jeff was actually upsetting her, but she seemed to not be able to; she was well aware that the whole apartments probably knew about their past – even though she didn't anymore – and were expecting her to be a depressed wreck, but she didn't want to give them what they wanted. She wanted to have fun and smile, so that when she and Jeff finally did talk about everything, she could act happily and be confident. He didn't seem to like weak people, so she needed to be the opposite. Although, she had now shown herself to be exactly what he didn't like.

"I do?" she asked hesitantly, knowing that she was faking her surprise. "I don't know why. I'm feeling really happy right now."

Laughing Jack leaned back. "You're probably thinking about Jeff…right?"

The teenage murderer couldn't help but wince at his comment. She didn't realise that she was so easy to read. Not being around normal people for a year caused her to not be able to know whether she wore her heart on her sleeve or not. It was torture not being able to know how to hide her expressions.

"I…I…uh…"

"Don't worry about it." Jack laughed slightly. "I get it. You and he have history and it wouldn't be normal if you _weren't _thinking about him. He is acting like a prick after all."

"Do you…?" Jessie began reluctantly. "Do you think that he hates me…?"

A chuckled escaped Jack's mouth. "Jeff hates everyone. I wouldn't worry about that too much. He has the mentality to just condemn anyone who doesn't do what he wants. You just happen to be someone that he hates less than everyone else."

Jessie's expression became solemn as she sighed. "This isn't what I was expecting when you appeared in front of me and told me that you knew the guy that I was looking for."

"Let me guess…you were expecting him to take you in his arms and tell you that he loves you, right?" Jessie nodded slowly. "Well, that's not how Jeff works. He may have been like that with you in the beginning, when you guys first met, but he doesn't like that lovey-dovey stuff. He's more macho and manly than that."

"He doesn't seem macho and manly." Jessie mumbled.

The clown burst out into laughter, which he tried to hide, since the both of them were supposed to be hiding away from Sally – who may have stopped counting by then. "Don't tell him that you said that under any circumstances."

Jessie giggled. "I won't. Anyway, I just mean that a macho man wouldn't punch someone and run off like he did with you. He would have stayed for a full-on fight."

"He does fight me sometimes." Jack chuckled. "He can fight. I think that he just wanted to make sure that you didn't see him fighting like that."

"I am sorry about that…" Jessie stated sorrowfully. "I didn't know that he was going to try and beat you up because of me."

"It wasn't your fault." Jack patted Jessie on the back gently with his large, dark, claw-like hands. "He just has some major anger problems that he needs to deal with."

The two sat in silence for a moment, taking in what they had just discussed. Laughing Jack wasn't aware that Jessie had actually felt guilty for Jeff attacking him the other day; she may have worn her heart on her sleeve, but she was good at hiding _some_ of her emotions, when she really didn't want to let others know what she was thinking. Jack hadn't even guessed that she'd felt bad. On the other hand, Jessie didn't feel as if she knew anything about Jeff. He was supposed to be the man that she loved and yet, she couldn't even figure him out; she knew next to nothing about him. There was the temptation to ask Jack about their past, but she would rather just ask the killer himself.

"You know…" Jack started, grabbing her attention. "You can smile without him. He's not the only killer in the world who gives a damn about you. BEN really likes you and so does Sally. Eyeless Jack called you hot the day that you arrived."

Jessie blushed suddenly. "R-Really?!"

Jack nodded. "Yep. Thank God Jeff wasn't there when he said it. He would have clocked him."

Jessie tilted her head. "Do you really think that Jeff would care about something like that?"

"He would." Jack stated bluntly. "He may not look it right now, but he's quit possessive when it comes to you. While you were gone, he refused to let anyone say anything about you unless he addressed the matter first…and one monster called you cute when they saw your picture online and he flipped his shit."

"Oh…I see…" She tried her hardest to be monotone when speaking, but she couldn't hide the fact that she loved knowing that her lover used to get angry on her behalf. Her heart started to flutter and she couldn't hide her excitement on the matter.

"You can smile about that, you know." Jack's large hand now went on the girl's face as he pinched her cheek. "You look way better when you smile anyway."

Jessie's cheeks were going crimson and not simply because Jack was pinching one of them until it turned rosy and rough. Her large, brown eyes stared up at the clown demon as she wondered how someone like him could be a serial killer; he seemed so gentle and kind – nothing like how Jeff was presenting himself to be. When he fought off those rapists for her, on the day that they first met, he seemed so scary and tough, but she could see that he wasn't mean at all. She could instantly tell that he wasn't going to be dangerous – she just acted cautious, since she could never really know whether someone was mean or not by first glance.

"Besides…" the clown continued as he released Jessie's cheek from his grasp. "You're fun to be around…and Jeff shouldn't take your beautiful, happy look away from you."

This comment instantly caused her to do exactly as he wanted her to do and beamed at him; the knowledge that someone wanted her to be happy actually made her feel warm inside, even if the individual wasn't Jeff. For as long as she could remember, she had been treated like a test subject and as if she didn't matter in the world; no one had shown concern for her or let her know that she was cared about, but now she was liked by people like her. Now, she had finally found a place where she could feel at home and looked after.

"Thank you, Laughing Jack…" she giggled a girly giggle that she had never done before that moment. "You're fun to be around as well."

Suddenly, Jack's entire face became a salmon colour. Jessie's smile was causing his face to feel warm and his heart to skip a few beats. All of a sudden, he could see Jessie for what she actually was – a young girl. Her large eyes shone in the blazing sun that was hidden behind the bushes and trees around the two of them; her lips seemed to glisten, as if they had been waxed with the greatest of care – they even seemed extremely kissable. The long hair that had grown out over the years fell to the floor and touched his hands so that he could see how soft and silky it was, and her bare legs resembled a sparkling, chocolate cream – he felt as though he could just lean over and take a bite out of them, since they looked so soft and smooth.

It had only just occurred to him how cute she was. Her attitude was also so unlike any human that he had ever seen – kind and caring – but she was also a killer who seemed to be able to control her urges to stab others. She was unlike anyone that he had ever met before and he could figure out why on earth Jeff was so determined to stay away from her. He was missing out, in Jack's opinion.

On the other side of the bushes, high up on a balcony, Jeff was stood with his arms crossed and an angry expression on his face; he had seen Jessie and Jack run into the bushes and had no idea what they had been doing. He knew that Jessie had been spending time with Sally and BEN the day before, playing games and having fun without him, but Laughing Jack wasn't involved before that. He couldn't tell whether Jack was playing a game with her or taking her into that bush to do something vile to her. The thought of either was making him throw up internally.

He could feel his jealousy seeping through worse than when John and his crew had their disgusting way with Jessie and took advantage of her. The reason why his feeling were more vivid and blood boiling was that he knew Jack and how he liked to annoy people and treat them like his own personal playthings. Jessie didn't need that in her life and she certainly didn't need to be playing around with someone as frustrating as Jack.

"Come on, BEN!"

The killer noticed his short, blond friend running around the corner with Sally's hand in his as she dragged him along with her. Those two had been friends since Sally had moved into the apartments and had never looked back; Jeff was wondering why they hadn't started dating, but then remembered that even if they were killers, they were still children and had the minds of children. Romance and relationships weren't on their agenda; the only thing that they tended to do together was play games and gossip with one another.

The two kids headed towards the bushes that Laughing Jack and Jessie were hidden in and shouted into them; the clown and teen came out of the bushes laughing and smiling without a care in the world. A lump appeared in Jeff's throat as he realised that Jessie was laughing and having fun without him and had been since she arrived; he expected her to be miserable and desperate to talk to him, but for some reason, the fact that she wasn't made him depressed. He guessed that he wanted for her just be sad and lonely like he was.

Jack's hand went on Jessie's back, bellow Jeff and they both laughed out loud. The sudden urge to punch Laughing Jack in the face was something that Jeff knew that he couldn't avoid. He wanted to head down there and give Jack some ass-kicking that he would never forget, but the problem with that plan was that he would have to see Jessie's look of shock if he did that. The one thing that he seemed to hate more than anything was seeing Jessie upset.

He just wished that Slender would come back and take her away, putting her back into a bigger and better hospital with better security – and most importantly, away from him. That was where she belonged. She was the one who would rather have died than become a killer. She chose what she wanted and she couldn't change her mind now that she had lost her memory.

"Shut up, Jack!"

Instantly, Jessie slapped Jack around the face playfully and giggled. Jeff's hands firmly attached themselves to the balcony and crushed the fence that prevented him from falling over the edge. His anger was growing more and more as he observed the adorable scene from bellow him and his need to go and grab Jessie and take her away from the others was increasing.

He couldn't take how much his emotions were flicking from one to the other. One moment, he wanted to grab Jessie, take her into his room, lock the door and make love to her and the next minute, he wanted to send her away and keep her away from him. He couldn't decide which one he wanted to do more and it was pissing him off.

He just wanted this all to be over.

~:~

"What do you mean Jeff isn't the only killer like him?!"

Anthony and Dan were sat down on the paper-covered couch of the Jeff the Killer fan club, looking over some candid pictures of the killer himself and some articles about him. Andrew had made it very clear that any information that they gathered there couldn't be used in any news paper articles without his permission and made a massive case of it; they agreed without any problems, since that wasn't their main concern. After introducing them to a few of the club members and showing them some articles however, he had stated something that had changed their views entirely.

"Didn't you know that?!" Andrew laughed. "I thought that most people knew. Jeff isn't the only person who kills in his weird way or the only person who had committed mass-murder and gotten away with it strangely."

"But…" Anthony looked down to the floor. "You can't mean that there are people around who kill _as much_ as he does…"

"That's exactly what I mean." Andrew tilted his head. "You should know this more than anyone, Anthony. Jessie wanted to move with Jeff when she committed murder. He doesn't live by himself and she knew that. I thought that you knew that."

The glasses-wearing teenager flinched and remembered when he realised that the reason that Jessie wanted to run away with Jeff was so that she could be around other killers like her, who understood her more than he and Sally did. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten something so important from when he was in love with her. Since he had tried to forget everything so desperately, he must have really erased many things from his memories.

Dan turned to his partner angrily and glared at him. "What else have you kept from us, twerp?"

Anthony glared back. "I'm not keeping anything from you. You just don't ask, Dan. All you care about is yourself anyway."

Before Dan could yell at his counterpart, Andrew intervened. "So, you do know this stuff, Anthony?"

The British boy sighed, in order to calm himself down. "Yeah. Jessie did mention it before she ended up losing her memories and going to that hospital."

"That was something else that I was wondering." Andrew mentioned. "We cannot find anything about the night that Jessie went to that hospital. Do you know why she ended up there and didn't go with Jeff?"

"I don't." Anthony answered honestly. "That last time that I saw her was…when I tried to…to…"

"Kill yourself?" Dan finished for him.

"Yeah…when I tried to kill myself to be with Sally." Anthony glanced up at the club leader, knowing that he probably already knew that this event occurred. Even if he did, he still gave him an extremely sympathetic look.

"I am sorry about Sally." He exhaled. "She seemed like someone who would have been a good friend to Jessie. She probably went to the roof that night to convince Jessie to stop this murderous path."

Anthony nodded. His best friend had already told him that she went to the roof with the intension of saving Jessie and rescuing her from Jeff's grasp – whether that meant killing her herself and having Jeff murder her as a response, or simply getting her to agree to leave the roof with her and turn herself in. Either way, he knew full well that Sally was an amazing friend and someone that he was really missing talking to.

"How are these people connected?" Dan asked, clearly not sympathetic towards Anthony's situation in that moment – not that the teen was shocked at that fact.

"Well…" Andrew began. "All of these…creatures aren't people for a start."

Anthony and Dan both glanced at the leader with a shock. Dan was the one to speak. "What do you mean by that? Jeff is human. He was a normal kid not long ago, just like us."

"Well, that may be so, but his friends are not." Andrew stated. "We have a name for them all that we came up with a while ago."

"What's that?" Dan asked, sounding irritated.

Andrew chuckled slightly, remembering how crazy the name actually sounded when he said it out loud.

"Well…for short, we call them the C.P.'s." he inhaled and exhaled. "But their real name is…the Creepy-Pasta's."


	15. Chapter 14: Information

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Information**

A slight breeze drifted from one side of the reception to the other as Charlotte waited patiently for her interviewee on the velvety couch provided by the collage she was in. The bubble-gum chewing reception desk worker had directed the police woman to take a seat and wait for the student in a brisk fashion, causing for Charlotte to feel irritated already. She never thought that an American would be so rude towards her, but then again, she had never been to the wonderful continent before and hadn't met anyone from that great nation, so she really couldn't pre-judge them, even if he judgement was pleasant.

Coming all this way to interview a college student who used to be classmates with Jeff the Killer before he received that brilliant title from the media wasn't the top priority on her list of things to do while in Florida; she was curious as to what the Jeff the Killer fan-club was like and was envious of her older brother and Anthony for getting to go and check it out, but she had no other choice but to let them go and see this student alone. She would have never have let someone as easily aggravated and frustrated as Dan interview someone so young and on such a delicate subject; there was a spark in her mind that thought that she could allow someone kind and empathetic – who had also met Jeff, even if it wasn't before he turned into an infamous serial killer – like Anthony to speak with this young adult, but her glasses-wearing friend didn't have the qualifications or training to do something as fragile as this. So, she was stuck doing this by herself.

She had been wondering all day how the boys were doing on their end. She promised herself that she would only call them if she desperately needed them, but she really desired a listen in on what they were talking about with the club leader. She hoped that Dan was on his best behaviour and wasn't bullying Anthony, like he had for the last couple of days. Her brother didn't really know how to interact with others as much as she would have liked.

Since the murder of his friend, Dan had been very shut off from the rest of his family and that included her. She had been so proud of her older brother, going into a university in the United States of America; him being able to leave the country and live on his own in such a marvellous place was so incredible to her and she knew that she could never do something so amazing herself. There were always feelings of admiration that came into Charlotte's head when she thought about Dan, since he was the main male role model that she'd had as a child. Her father was always away on business overseas and despite the fact that her mother always had strange men around the house when she was younger, they were never the type of people that she would want to look up to. They never even greeted her when they visited the house, since her mother always took them straight upstairs when they arrived.

Dan was the one who taught her how to ride her bike as a child; she remembered him taking her to the park every day after school so that she could practice riding it with him until she could do it herself. After that, he rode with her to the shops down the road and to the lake nearby their house whenever she asked him to. Charlotte was well aware that usually fathers were the ones who taught their children how to ride bikes, since all of her school friends boasted about their fathers teaching them, but that didn't matter to her. She was glad that she had gotten the quality time with her brother like that. Plus, she wasn't close enough to her father to allow him to teach her something as important as riding a bike.

Dan was also the person who had taught her how to cook and the one who would hug her when she watched scary movies with him; she also had memories of when she would have nightmares and would need to sleep with someone to calm herself down and Dan would always welcome her into his bed with open arms. He was such a kind older brother back then.

She had told him that she wanted to be a police woman when she was about to take her GCSE's and he had just started his A-Level exams; the response that she had gotten was the one that she had expected.

"_Just don't arrest me when I kidnap Emma Stone. That's a secret between you and me."_

That was all that she needed to hear. She didn't want to know that he was proud of her or that he was pleased that she knew what she wanted to do with her life; all that she needed to know was that he would support her and through that small joke, he had done exactly that. She was so happy that day that she had brought the two of them some ice-cream after school and they wondered around the park, hoping to see some ducks waddling around.

The police woman sighed. "Those were the days…"

Everything changed after Jeff had murdered his friend. He became so engaged in researching Jeff and finding out how to catch him that he didn't even want to see her anymore; she called him up to tell him that she had gotten into the university that she wanted to go to and he didn't even say anything; he just kept typing on his laptop keyboard and making incoherent noises. Charlotte had tried her hardest to support her sibling, but he simply wouldn't let her help him through his despair; he always wanted to be alone or wanted for her to stop pestering him. Their relationship had completely changed. She felt bad enough when he said that he was going to university, since she knew how much she would miss him greatly, but now their relationship was practically gone.

Dan was completely gone.

***BEEP* *BEEP***

The blond jolted and reached into her pocket for her phone; she wondered if Dan was finished with his task already and that Anthony and he were heading back to the hotel. There was also the worry that the worst case scenario had happened and the two of them had offended the club members and weren't allowed back in there, after not gathering any important information – that seemed like a likely scenario, even if Anthony was there to keep Dan calm. Although, when she glanced down at her mobile, she realised that it wasn't Dan or Anthony at all.

"Brandon?" she whispered.

In her hand laid an email sent by her fiancé. He had promised to message her at least once a day and call her at night, despite the time difference; so far, he had fulfilled that promise. Seeing a message from the man that she loved caused her to smile at the screen.

"_Hey baby,_

_I miss you! I know that you've only been gone for a night, but I already want you back here. The apartment isn't the same without the smell of your amazing pancakes (yum!)_

_Work was alright today, but I couldn't stop thinking about you being gone. It made me so sad to think about _

_I hope that you get back to me soon. I'll be calling you tonight. Also, I hope that Dan isn't being too bitchy. Don't take any notice of him. Be careful out there, honey._

_I can't wait to have that sweet body back in my bed ;) _

_Love Bran x"_

Charlotte giggled at her lover's sweet message. He always had a way of cheering her up, even when he wasn't even around; she couldn't wait to get back to him and finally become his wife. She held the phone close to her heart and smiled at the ground, knowing that she wouldn't have to wait too long for that to happen if the boys gathered the information that they needed to find Jeff.

She had told Brandon before she had left that she had hoped for this trip to be a sort of bonding adventure for Dan and herself; she wanted to go back to how they used to be and she thought that this trip would do that. Her fiancé had pointed out that the only way for that to happen would be for them to catch Jeff and bring him to justice; the ironic thing was that he didn't know that she had gone to Florida to find Jeff. He just thought that she was going on a holiday for a while. He simply knew that Jeff the Killer resided in Florida – like the rest of the world – and that Dan would love it if he were caught.

She knew that he was right. She wanted to catch Jeff and lock him away for the safety of the people around her, but more than that, she wanted her brother back. If Jeff was taken away and Dan knew that he was getting the punishment that he deserved, then he would stop looking for him, finally grieve for his friend properly and move on with his life. She could finally have fun with her brother once again, rather than argue with him constantly.

It was what she wanted the most.

"Charlotte Maypoles?"

Immediately, Charlotte shoved her phone into her jean pocket and gazed upwards, noticing a young girl stood before her with a psychology book in her arms; her face was petite and delicate, similar to a doll's and her hair was flowing and dark, like a majestic horse. Emerald shone in the depths of her eyes as the shimmering sun hit them and she smiled sweetly towards Charlotte, emitting a kind aura that the police woman remembered feeling when she met Anthony for the first time.

"Helen?" Charlotte replied with.

The young girl nodded and took a seat next to the blond woman, still smiling as if they were there to have tea and not discuss a mass murderer that the teenager used to know; Helen reached her hand out to initiate a hand shake and Charlotte took the offer.

"It's nice to meet you." Charlotte softly said as she released her hand from Helen's, turning more towards her to see her features better. "Would you mind if we started the questions immediately?"

Helen nodded. "Yeah. Just ask what you need to. I haven't got a class for another hour or so, so I have time."

There was something about this girl that amazed Charlotte, but also something that displayed sadness; it was as if she were looking into the eyes of a neglected, wealthy child who barely even knew their parents – kind of like her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but this teen seemed genuine when she smiled, but as much as she must have hated it, there was a sorrowful glow emitting from those verdant eyes of hers. There was tragedy in her head and Charlotte could tell from a mile away; she was used to talking to victims of rape or attempted murder, so she could tell when horrific events had happened in someone's life.

She got out her note pad, ready to write down what this girl was about to say to her. "So…I guess that my questions will seem quite general, but what was he like at school?"

Helen seemed all too eager to answer. "Well, he was quiet and didn't really talk to anyone much. Obviously, he wasn't at school for too long, but when he _was_ there, he hung out with Liu – his brother."

"That's interesting." Charlotte commented as she wrote down this information that she was well aware of. "If that was the case, then why was he getting involved in bullying?"

"He clearly didn't want anything to do with Randy's group…"

"Randy's the boy who burnt Jeff's skin at the birthday party, right?" Charlotte asked.

Helen nodded. "He was mean to everyone and his gang always acquired things like knives and guns somehow, so everyone was scared of them. I remember that he always used to try and take my lunch money and threatened me with a knife if I didn't want to or tried to run away from him. He was a piece of shit, to be honest; the teachers never did anything about the group, since they were too lazy. Public schools…Jeff tried to stay away from them, but they would follow him around like a puppy since he beat them up."

"Jeff beat them up?"

"Yeah…" A small smile appeared on Helen's face. "I remember that everyone was so happy when they found out that Randy's had the sense beaten into them. We were all wishing for someone to do it and Jeff was our secret hero…but…we couldn't ever tell him that…"

"Why not?"

There was hesitation in Helen's voice as she opened her mouth to speak once again; she clutched her hands together and looked down to the floor. "Only a few people actually saw Jeff beat them up and I was one of them. I hid behind a tree nearby when I saw Randy, mainly out of fear, and watched it all happen. Randy and the other two idiots were badgering Jeff and Liu for their lunch money or something and Jeff ended up fighting them. But it got ugly…"

"How so?"

The young, college student swallowed some saliva. "Jeff…broke bones…and cracked things. Randy and the others were crying and begging him to stop, but he was just…smiling. I think he was enjoying it. He was enjoying making Randy and the others feel pain. His face was…so much more terrifying in that moment than it is nowadays."

"It was shortly after that…that the birthday party happened?" Charlotte asked reluctantly.

"Yeah…Liu had been arrested for the attack of Randy and the others…but we all knew that Jeff had done it. Jeff was sensitive on the subject. Randy and the guys pushed him and he…killed them all. It was only because it was self-defence that Jeff got away with it…but then he disappeared after he killed his parents and Liu…"

"Did you expect him to kill his family?"

"No!" Genuine shock came out of Helen's mouth. "Liu and he were inseparable. They were the closest brothers that I had ever seen. It was weird that he would even _think_ of that. No one expected it at all…no one expected him to get Jane either…"

"Jane?"

"Yeah. She was a girl who lived close to me and was quiet. Her family were killed by Jeff and she disappeared, so we all assumed that she was killed as well."

Charlotte took a moment to contemplate. She hadn't realised how many people in Jeff's area had been effected by his murderous tendencies and how much it had ruined people's lives. She hadn't heard anything about a girl going missing because of Jeff killing her parents, but she didn't find it very difficult to believe.

"Were you in any way effected by Jeff's killings?" Charlotte asked slowly and delicately.

"No…thank God." Charlotte internally sighed. "Although, I was scared for my life every day…I was scared for my family and worried that he would come to our house any day and kill them. It was going through my head every day…"

"I can imagine…" There was a part of Charlotte that didn't know what to do with this situation. She wanted to be able to promise this girl that she would catch Jeff and make him pay for his actions, but she didn't even know if she would be able to complete that task. She was desperate to, for his future victims and for Dan, but being desperate didn't always give people what they wanted. "Do you know why Jeff became a killer?"

"The media say that he enjoyed hurting people and that led to it." Helen stated. "I think that might be right…but…there was always something a little off about him."

"What do you mean?"

"He always seemed…different somehow…"

Charlotte jolted when she remembered Anthony telling her in an interview after Jessie lost her memories that she always seemed different; it was a normal thing for people to see in killers. Every murderer would have seemed different in some way when they were younger, whether it be in a positive or negative way; although, the way that people made this statement when talking about Jeff or Jessie was strange. It made her remember how Anthony used to shudder and tremble when speaking about Jessie; how his eyes would widen and his breathing rate would increase slightly. There was a something off about the way people spoke about these two.

"What do you mean…different?" she asked, leaning forward, forgetting to write anything down.

"I don't know…" Helen stared at the floor, her eyes widening. "It just seems as though…he…wasn't even human…"

~:~

"Eyeless Jack? Hoody? Masky? What the hell is all of this?"

Dan and Anthony were peering down at random pieces of paper with writing and photographs on them; they looked in awe as they witnessed scenes of crimes and photographs taken in deserted locations, which included creatures that they had both never seen before. Dan had been researching Jeff the Killer for as long as he could remember, but he had never been so shocked at seeing the creatures that the murderer associated himself with.

"Eyeless…Jack?" Anthony mumbled.

Andrew heard his mutter and responded without any hesitance or request. "He's a Creepy-Pasta that we see very often. He eats people's organs and leaves them alive – surprisingly enough. There have been hundreds of cases of people waking up without their liver or some of their intestines in the U.S. Most of them die from their bodies shutting down, but none of them are dead when he leaves their organ-less bodies."

"This could easily be one of those guys who knocks people out and takes people's organs to sell on the black market." Dan commented, crossing his arms. "How could you all know that this is _this _guy?"

"There has been a decline on organs being sold on the black market and an increase in organs being taken." Andrew sighed. "Plus, people have spotted this guy many times. Even before he takes their organs, they all give descriptions of the same guy. We know it's him. Plus, there have been sightings of Jeff and this guy together in various places – most of them being from over a year ago, coincidentally."

"This is weird…" Anthony stated more calmly than he would have expected himself to be, seeing these images and knowing that there were more killers like Jeff out there. "Jeff's the only one of these guys that's been in the media…why is that?"

Andrew smirked. "We have a theory that he's just worse at hiding from the media than the rest of them. It could also be because the other Creepy-Pastas don't let humans see them very often. Getting these photographs was hard enough."

Dan stood straight. "I have to ask…why 'Creepy-Pasta'? That's a dumb-ass name."

"Dan!" Anthony yelled. "Don't be rude!"

"It's okay…" Andrew chuckled. "I'll explain. We chose that name because it was a mixture of a word that describes the creatures and the food that we were all eating at the time that we chose the name." Anthony and Dan gave Andrew a blank stare. "It's silly. I know that, but we couldn't resist. Plus, C.P. sounds cool and official."

Anthony's eyes drifted downwards, towards the papers once more as he noticed something that caught his eyes. There were many different pictures of these creatures that Andrew had been introducing the two boys to and each picture seemed to be from different eras; Anthony could tell this because some pictures were in black and white and some in colour. One of the black and white pictures seemed to be enticing the teenager's eyes and made him widen his eyes.

The photograph depicted a dark, misty forest that seemed to be in the South East of Britain; it almost occurred to Anthony that he had been to that forest before, but he couldn't remember when or who with. Within the depths of the forest, there was a tall figure that had a black suit and no face; there was only a blank, white canvas where his facial features should have been.

"_I don't know who he was. All I remember was that he was really tall…like, really tall. And he was pale as all hell…and he was wearing a dark suit. After I saw him, he came closer to me and before I knew it, I was behind you in the police station, but you couldn't see me…"_

Suddenly, Anthony remembered when Sally had originally come back to life and told him how she became a ghost inside of his head; she never really knew why she came back to life, but she mentioned a person who looked exactly like this man in the picture.

BANG

"Ow!" Anthony exclaimed as he felt a large knock on the back of his head; the rest of the group noticed his sudden noise and turned to look at him.

"What, kid?" Dan asked. "What's up? Is this stuff too much for you to handle?"

Anthony scowled at his partner. "No, Dan. I just accidently stepped on my own foot…"

Dan scoffed. "Heh…idiot."

Anthony ignored Dan's comment and felt the happiness flow through to his heart; that knock on the back of his head was something that anyone else would be annoyed about, but Anthony couldn't have been more pleased to receive a hit on the head. He was well aware that it was Sally who had been the one to harm him and that was the best feeling that he couldn't have received in that moment. They hadn't spoken for so long that Anthony was beginning to become scared that she had moved on to another stage of the afterlife and had left him once more, but now his worries had been comforted by her assault. He could kiss her.

Another thing that Sally's attack signified was that this man on the paper that Anthony was staring at was the one who had made her a ghost. She had mentioned that she saw him, so she would remember what he looked like; that hit must have been for Anthony to know that he was the one. That did disappoint Anthony a tiny bit, since that meant that she didn't hit him to show that she was simply there, but she did it to give him information; however, it was just nice to know that she was there at all.

"Andy…I have to ask…" Andrew turned and looked at his teenage counterpart. "Who is this one?"

Andrew glanced down at the piece of paper. "Oh, that's Slenderman."

"Slenderman?" Dan titled his head.

"Yeah, he's an interesting Creepy-Pasta. He's one of the only ones' that's clearly not human at all. Sightings of him go back to ancient times. His trait is that he kidnaps children and takes them to purgatory…or eats them, depending on his mood. There have been so many cases of people seeing him with Jeff that I couldn't even count them all."

"You keep saying that there are sightings of these…things…" Dan stated. "…but how do _you _guys find them?"

"Good question." Andrew seemed very proud of himself all of a sudden. "We track them after our first meetings with them. All of us have met at least one C.P."

"Really?" Anthony gasped. "Which one have _you _met?"

"One called…The Rake."

Dan chuckled. "What? Is he a literal rake?"

"Oh…far from it. He's a creature that tears people apart. He's like some kind of human mutation or something. Some people think that he's an alien, but I think that he's a monster. I only saw him for a second. I was walking home from my sister's place and stopped in an alleyway to have a smoke – I've quit now, by the way – and there he was. Crouched over, like a monkey, staring at me with bright, green eyes…I thought that it was going to attack me…but it just ran off."

"So…nothing bad happened to you and yet…" Anthony became slightly quieter. "You're going around _looking _for these things? Even though you know that they'll murder you?"

"We're interested in them." Andrew sighed. "I know that you and Dan have been through horrible things because of Jeff, but we only want to find them to observe…"

"They won't just let you do that…they'll kill you. You know that, right?" Anthony asked reluctantly.

His new acquaintance nodded. "Yes. That's why we keep our distance."

"But…" Dan joined in. "How would people like us get closer to them?"

The club leader titled his head. "You actually _want _to get close to them? Why is that?"

"We can't say…" Anthony exhaled; he didn't want Dan to be rude about it, which was very likely if he were the one to speak.

Andrew looked the two up and down, and then proceeded to smile. "Well, the C.P.'s end up going to the same spot every few months so find a good kill…sometimes every few weeks and sometimes even every few days. It depends on who they are. We go to those spots and take pictures, stalk them and leave before they make their kills."

"You don't stop them?" Anthony asked.

"How? They're supernatural beings."

The memory of Anthony punching Jeff in the face popped up as the teen wondered how Jeff could be so dangerous if he allowed himself to be hit by someone like him.

"Hey, kid…" Anthony turned to glance at Dan. "I think that we should head back to Charlotte. I have an idea."

Anthony nodded. "Yeah…you're right."


	16. Chapter 15: Dream

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Dream**

It had felt like the greatest moment in Anthony's life.

After his and Dan's adventures with the Jeff the Killer fan club and Charlotte's mission of finding out new information about Jeff himself, the three met back up in the hotel and discussed what they had found out; Charlotte, thinking about what to do next, decided that they should all contemplate a plan of action in the morning, when they've had rest and time to develop ideas. Obviously, Dan was reluctant to simply go to bed without taking any course of action right there and then, but since both his sister and his new partner had agreed to going and sleeping, he was forced to accept her proposal. Despite his eagerness to find Jeff, even Dan was aware that it was better to go looking for him or any hints about him with another person by his side, just in case anything went wrong.

Due to this decision, Anthony rushed back into his room, stripped down to his boxers and jumped into bed; his desire to sleep at that moment was more desperate than it had been ever before. Sally not speaking to him since they all had arrived in Florida had been terrible torture for him and he wanted, more than anything, to hear Sally's voice once more. Even if it was just for a second.

Her making contact with him during Dan's and his talk with the Jeff the Killer fan club members gave him slight hope that he would be able to speak to her and lay his eyes upon her once more if he fell asleep that night. Considering how enraged his ghostly friend was at him before she cut him off, the fact that she even bothered to make any physical contact with him at all in that moment was incredible and Anthony had hoped that this was a sign that he could be by her side once more in the dream world.

He had attempted to fall asleep immediately to see Sally many times before and he knew what he had to do; being too excited about falling asleep wouldn't help him achieve his goal any faster. His breathing slowed down and he relaxed his entire body. The eyes that had seen Sally's dead body a year previous gradually shut and he simply waited for sleep to take him away.

Not long after he relaxed himself, his prayers were answered.

His eyes opened suddenly, almost as if he knew that he was asleep and he saw his best friend standing in front of him in the pure, white dress that she had been wearing every day for the past year. Her expression wasn't one of happiness or joy, but of irritation and annoyance. She clearly wasn't very pleased to be seeing Anthony in that moment, but the fact that she allowed him to dream of her must have meant _something _at the very least; however, none of this mattered to Anthony. He was simply happy to be seeing her at all.

"Sally…" His eyes glistened as he smiled greatly at his best friend and took a few steps forward, clearly about to go and hug her.

"Not so fast, Anthony." Her statement stopped the teen in his tracks and caused him to make a worried face. "You don't get to act all happy and apologetic just yet. I'm still mad at you, you know…"

"Huh?" This confused the glasses-wearing boy more than the fact that Charlotte and Dan were siblings, considering how different their personalities were. "Wait, then why did you make contact with me? A-And why are you talking to me _now_?"

A rosy colour appeared on Sally's cheek as she looked to the side, refusing to make eye contact with her friend. "It's not because I forgive you. I just know that you're aware of the information that I need…and you're getting closer and closer to finding Jessie by the day…so I wanted to talk to you…"

"What do you mean? What information?" Anthony's tone was that of a small child who was confused, but didn't know what to do with himself. Sally sighed and pushed some of her hair back behind her ears.

"The man who made me what I am today…the suited man with no face…" She replied with. "I want to know who he is and what his connection is to Jessie."

"What makes you think that she's connected to him?" Anthony asked. "Jessie only knew Jeff and that one friend of his, BEN. So, how would they be connected?"

The ghost's eyes drifted once more as she contemplated how to respond; there was a feeling deep inside Anthony that told him that this girl knew more than she was letting on, but he didn't know how to put this thought into words, since he was avoiding insulting or accusing Sally like the plague after their argument. If there was one thing that Anthony knew, it was that he couldn't lose Sally like that again, even if it was just for a short amount of time.

"You know…" Sally began hesitantly. "I would do anything to make sure that Jessie was alive and safe. She may be evil in your eyes, but no matter what, I'll make sure that she isn't hurt in this mission that you, Charlotte and Dan seem to be on. She isn't the person that you think Jeff made her."

"How can you say that?!" Anthony exclaimed. "She killed you! We've been over this over and over again!"

"She didn't kill me!" The passion in Sally's eyes was something that Anthony had never seen before; he was taken aback by her clear need to get her point across. "Jeff was the one who did it! She was about to spare me and help me! You weren't there! You didn't see the fear and distress in her eyes when she saw me bleeding out like that! Don't act like you could ever understand! You're not the one who died! She even tried to help _you_ when you took the cowards way out and kill yourself! So, don't blame her! It isn't her fault!"

Silence flooded the dream world. All that Anthony could hear was the heavy breathing of his ghostly friend as she recovered from her screaming session with him; Sally was the type of person to be blunt and tell it how it was, but Anthony was most definitely not prepared for that kind of speech from her just yet. He couldn't deny the fact that he could understand why Sally was upset about this topic; Jessie had been their friend for a long time and always helped them when they needed it. She was the person that Sally went to when she needed help and she also knew that Jessie would be there in a heartbeat, no matter what; however, he couldn't understand why she would still defend their murderous ex-best friend. She had killed two of their best friends and caused Sally's death, even if she wasn't the one to give the final blow.

He could never be as forgiving as she was and didn't know why she would make it her mission to keep her safe from harm's way the instant that they all knew where she was. In a large way, Jessie was the reason why Sally was a ghost and was only able to communicate with Anthony through dreams. He could never forgive her for that, even if Sally was able to.

"I don't understand for the life of me…how you can defend her…" Anthony mumbled. "She…she…"

"You don't know the situation as well as you think you do." Sally interrupted, causing Anthony to stare up at her. "If you knew what I knew…you would pity her, not hate her…"

"Well…" Anthony began. "What do you know? What can you possibly tell me that would change my opinion of her and make me think that you're right? That she fell in love with Jeff and she did this whole thing for love? Because that isn't an excuse!"

"God, you're so transparent…" Sally faced palmed and sighed.

"W-What do you mean by that?!"

"You're clearly still in love with her and are just angry at the fact that you shouldn't be in love with such a famous serial killer. Plus, Jeff did kind of take her away from you last year, so you're butt-hurt about that too…"

A crimson flush came over Anthony's face, while the anger towards Sally inside of his head boiled and showed its face. "You have _got _to be joking! Why would I be in love with a murderer like her?! All she knows how to do is kill and hurt others!"

Sally was silent. All she did was cross her arms and give Anthony a stare that told him that no matter how much her shouted and screamed, he wouldn't get a response from her. This was something that the teenage ghost used to do when she was alive; it was her way of saying that she was so sure that she was 100% right that she didn't even need to argue her case. It used to annoy her friends constantly when they had debates, but right now, Anthony was no going to let her be silent.

"Don't do that! Don't act like you're right and know what you're talking about! You may know me, but you don't know my emotions!"

All Sally could do at this point to shut Anthony up was wonder over towards him and grab his hand; his yelling ceased for that moment and his cheeks reduced to a light pink from the contact with a girl. The shock of such a gentle action allowed for Anthony to instantly calm down and listen to what Sally had to say and for Sally to take a second to think about how she would explain what she wanted to do now that their argument had subsided.

"I need you to understand what I'm saying, Anthony." There was a softness in Sally's voice that her fellow teen had not ever heard before and that slightly worried Anthony. He didn't know that Sally could sound so caring and serious at the same time. "There's something about the dream world that I live in that I only discovered when we argued and it has been keeping me very occupied while I've been ignoring you…"

Anthony's head tilted slightly. "What do you mean?"

Gently, Sally pulled Anthony's hand forward, slyly pulling the boy himself forward and causing him to take steps along with the ghost before him.

"I'll show you…"

All of a sudden, right in front of Anthony's eyes, a sort of portal opened up in front of the two; Anthony's eyes widened and his mouth hung open, while Sally simply kept walking closer and closer towards the door to a new location, her expression not having changed. Since Sally had come to his dreams a year previous, Anthony had never seen a portal open up like this in the dream, except when he was waking up and Sally was kicking him out of the dream a couple of days previous. It was a complete shock to him.

As he looked inside the portal, he noticed that the new world before him was dark with many mirror shaped objects on the walls, each of them displaying recordings of different versions of Sally, Anthony and Jessie. Once Sally and he had passed through to the new land, and the portal had closed behind them – not that Anthony even noticed – the teen looked around rapidly at the images being presented to him. To his left, he witnessed the moment that Jessie had presented him with tickets to an anime convention and was attempting to convince him to go with her. To his right, he laid his eyes upon the moment when he and Sally had played a game of one-on-one football and Sally completely destroyed him, while Jessie tried to comfort him for losing. There was seemingly hundreds more images and videos playing around them, completely soundless, but bringing out the emotions in Anthony.

"W-What…is this place?" He asked, a quiver in his voice, which Sally immediately picked up on.

"I felt like that too." She stated bluntly as she released his hand. "It's tough seeing all of these memories all at once. I don't really know what this place is, but it opened up to me straight after I had booted you out of my world. I've been exploring it and playing with it since then, which is why I've been absent for a while."

Anthony turned to her. "So…you weren't ignoring me because you were mad at me?"

The ghost scoffed. "Dream on. I was still pissed at you…but I would've come back to you sooner if it wasn't for this place. It's made me realise a lot about our situation."

"Like what?" Anthony asked.

"Glad you asked…." Sally mumbled as she clicked her fingers. As she did this, a large mirror levitated down towards the two and gently floated before them. Without even a moment's hesitation – despite Anthony's clear confusion to the situation – Sally touched the mirror and began to play a scene that she had re-lived many times over and over in her head.

In the scene, Anthony instantly recognised the school roof and the figures who were on top of it; Sally was on the floor, bleeding and crying out to a demented looking Jessie, who held a blood-covered knife as she sat above her victim. Jeff was stood with his arms crossed, observing the scene. Instantly, Anthony's blood boiled and his fists clenched.

"Why are you showing me this?" He asked roughly.

"You'll see." Sally stated simply.

Suddenly, in the video, Jessie's eyes widened and became tear filled. Sound could also be heard from the scene and Jessie's cries were the first sound to be heard.

"_Sally?! Sally! Oh my God!"_

Anthony's body numbed. He didn't know what to say. If ever there was a face of regret and deep self-hatred, it was the one that he was looking at of Jessie's; he had never seen her so distraught and angry with herself before. Throughout their whole friendship, he had established that Jessie was the type of person to feel guilt easily; if it wasn't for that fact, then she would have never have given John another chance and ended up being raped by his disgusting crew and him; however, he had never seen her look quite like this.

"This is when Jeff killed me. Jessie realised what she had done by bringing me up to that roof and stabbing me…and she was really sorry…" Sally almost whispered in Anthony's ear.

"_There you are…Jessie…there you are…"_

Anthony now understood why Sally had gone to that rood in the first place now and didn't tell him about it; she knew that she could somehow bring out the real Jessie again and make her realise what she had done. She wanted to bring her friend back to them both. Guilt filled Anthony as he realised how he had completely discarded the fact that Jessie was being brainwashed by Jeff and that she didn't want to hurt anyone.

"She…really didn't want to hurt you…did she…?" He asked.

"Well…keep watching and you'll understand…"

Anthony's eyes stayed glued to the screen as he kept watching Jessie apologising to his beloved, dead friend and Sally crying as she smiled. Out of the corner of the screen, he could see Jeff walking towards the sorrowful event and knew what must have been coming next because his eyes widened.

"_You're still my friend, Jessie…still my-."_

STAB

The screen cut to black suddenly, as Sally touched the mirror with tearful eyes; her face was pale and resembled that of someone who was car sick, riding in a couch on a school trip. Anthony wanted to see the next part of the scene, but instantly discarded that thought once he had seen Sally's face; she must have nearly died having to relive that moment in her head, let alone having to see it happening to her from an outsiders view. It would have been insensitive to her to be able to see it again like that, so he understood why she had decided to leave it and turn it off.

"Sally…" Anthony placed his hand on his friend's shoulder and she jolted as a result.

"I'm fine…" She looked up and wiped her tears away. "I just needed you to see this. She really didn't mean to do anything bad. You can see that by this video alone. I've been watching so many events that I didn't even know occurred."

"Like what?" Anthony inquired.

As a response, Sally touched the mirror once more and brought up a completely different scene, but one that was still set on a roof. This time, Jeff and Jessie were alone and were seeming to be arguing. Jeff was yelling at Jessie and she was crying as she tried to yell back.

"_YOU'RE JUST A WORTHLESS HUMAN LIKE THE REST OF THEM!"_

Anthony jumped at the outburst. "Whoa, what is this?"

"You remember the night that we first met again in the dream world? When you were in hospital? Well, this was going on at the same time. Jessie had realised that she had made a mistake trying to leave with Jeff and was arguing with him and he wasn't having it."

The look of upset in Jessie's eyes was something that he couldn't have handled if he was there with her in that moment on the roof; he would have punched Jeff in the face for making her cry for a start.

"How could he love her and talk to her like that…?"

Shockingly, Jessie allowed herself to cry as she got to the edge of the roof and stood there, looking as though she was going to jump.

"Jessie?!" Anthony exclaimed.

"_Jessie! Get down from there!"_

Jeff was trying to convince her to get away from the edge of the roof, clearly still displaying care for her, but Jessie wasn't listening at all. Instead, she turned to him and jumped backwards off the side of the roof.

"JESSIE!" Anthony acted as though he was there with her as she was about to jump. Sally used this to her advantage.

"See? You do care about her and you're upset about the idea of her getting hurt or dying. This was a tragedy and I won't deny that when I watched the whole thing, I cried…but there's another reason why I wanted you to see this."

Anthony never took his eyes off of the screen for a moment; Jeff was on the floor crying his eyes out while Sally was talking, but once she had stopped speaking, Jeff had heard someone say Jeff's name and prepared for what was about to happen next.

From behind the roof, came a tall creature with a blank, white face, a black suit and tentacles, who also happened to be flying at the time; he appeared in front of Jeff, carrying an unconscious and bleeding Jessie. The killer's face lit up and became one of the happiest man alive. While he spoke to the faceless man, Anthony knew instantly that the man holding Jessie was Slenderman – the very same creature who had given Sally her second chance of life as a ghost for whatever reason.

Sally paused the scene. "He took away Jessie's memories and Jeff and he dropped her off at the mental institution. Jeff thought it better that she forget ever meeting him. Now, I don't know about you, but this proves to me that the guy that we're dealing with is a pretty powerful being, since he brought me back to as a ghost and managed to erase Jessie's memories."

Anthony swallowed some saliva. "But…why did he bring you back as a ghost? He didn't have to do that at all…"

"That's what I want to find out…"

Sally clicked her fingers and made the mirror levitate upwards, leaving the sight of the two teens beneath it.

"So, what do you think of what I've shown you?" Sally asked with her hands on her hips.

Anthony sighed. "It doesn't take away from the fact that she killed innocent people on her rampage…"

"I know that it doesn't…" Sally muttered. "I just don't want you to be angry at her for killing _me _anymore. Now that you've seen what happened, you must understand that she didn't want to do it, right?"

"I do…" He replied softly. "I won't be mad at her for it anymore….but that doesn't take away from the mission. I have to make sure that she won't harm anyone again…"

Sally looked to her side, disappointed. "I thought that you would say that…but it doesn't matter. I mean, I have until you find her to convince you otherwise."

Anthony glanced towards his friend and wondered why it was so important to her to make sure that Jessie was out of harm's way once again; despite the fact that Jessie hadn't wanted to kill her the day that she had died, she still killed Lavinne and Ann-Ann. That still made her a danger to society and meant that she had to be stopped before she harmed someone else.

Sally glanced up towards Anthony back and smiled slightly. "I hate you, you know…."

Anthony scoffed and exhaled. "I hate you too…"

Despite the terrible circumstances and their disagreement, Sally couldn't help but smile at that comment.


	17. Chapter 16: Firefly

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Firefly**

If there was ever a moment that Jessie wanted to remember her past, now was that moment.

She was wondering through the apartment grounds during the middle of the night, thinking about her situation in depth; it wasn't as if, with all that was going on, that she would be able to get a good night's rest anyway, so she thought that she may as well go for a walk to clear her head. She had tucked Sally into bed, since the girl wanted Jessie to read her a bedtime story and ended up walking through a seemingly empty apartment building to the outside. There was a small forest outside the buildings, which she had decided to wonder though. It wasn't as if she had to worry about a killer coming out of nowhere and murdering her; she was surrounded by killers and from what Laughing Jack had told her about the place, no human was likely to ever get near the building anyway, so it wasn't like someone would have come all the way to the apartments to kill her.

Jessie hadn't seen Jeff that day, since he had hidden from her; instead, she had been playing with Sally, BEN and Laughing Jack to distract her from the fact that the murderer that she loved had been avoiding her all day. It was troublesome to attempt to act normal and like nothing was wrong when the whole reason that she was at the apartments in the first place wasn't even around and she had no idea why either.

It was hard, but she would have to try and remember everything as quickly as she could before she made any kind of attempt to be closer with Jeff. The way that he reacted when she reached the apartments at long last made her think that something very bad had happened between the two of them while they were together and that's why he didn't want to be near her. If that were the case, then she completely understood why her being oblivious to this event or argument would irritate him – it would annoy her too if it were the other way around. So, she would have to try and remember as much as she could before he ended up completely cutting her off altogether.

Although, there was only one problem with that…she didn't know how.

Since she had awoken from the hospital a year previous, she had been trying everything that she could to remember who she was and what she had done to end up in there in the first place, since she knew that it had something to do with what had happened between her and Jeff. Even the doctors at the hospital had tried whatever they could to help her remember her past; recalling of memories with stimulants, backtracking of her past, even hypnosis at one point, but none of this worked. She knew from the gossiping nurses that she had killed quite a few people before her imprisonment, but she thought that would make Jeff happy, so him avoiding her still didn't make any sense.

Jessie sighed as she stepped over a log. "How am I supposed to sort this out when I don't even know half the stuff I'm supposed to know...?"

This was one of the reasons why Jessie was desperate to see her friend whose name began with A when she was in the hospital – she still couldn't remember his actual name though. If he had visited her in the hospital even once when she was there, she could have gotten more of an insight as to what she had actually done to Jeff to make him hate her so much. Now, she knew that since she was the one who killed her friends, he probably hated her for that, so it was no wonder why he didn't come and see her; however, she still wished that he did, even to yell at her. She might have gotten some kind of clue then as to why the situation had become like this with her and the man that she was in love with that way.

Jessie turned left into the woods, going deeper and deeper into them and further and further away from the apartment buildings; the further she was away from them, the more relaxed she felt, since she knew that all of her troubles with Jeff were behind her. There was as part of her that wanted to run away and start again somewhere else – she was sure that Jeff would have wanted that – but she couldn't give up just yet on him or her quest to be with him. There must have been something she could have done to make him at the very least, acknowledge that she was sorry for anything that she must have done to him.

As Jessie went deeper into the woods, she began to notice a slight light coming from the distance. It was faint, almost like a flashlight in a dark house, but it was noticeable enough to catch Jessie's eye.

"What's that?" She asked herself as she decided to make a b-line straight towards the light.

She had no idea what the glow could have been, since as far as she knew, everyone in the apartments were either in the cities, making a kill, or sleeping and getting ready to go and commit murder the next day. It was very unlikely that anyone would be wondering around the place at this time like she was, since the monsters liked to be inside and comfortable at night if they weren't stalking their next victims.

Once she reached the light, Jessie pushed passed the bush that was in front of her and blocking her view of the illuminous glowing; her feet stepped over the plant before her and her eyes marvelled as she feasted her eyes upon a collection of fireflies.

"Wow…"

She stood before an enclosed space surrounded by trees and plants, which created a circular area of nature; in the middle of this area were a flock of fireflies, shimmering and giving the space some light. They silently flew around in front of the murderous teenager as she grinned at the beauty being presented to her. Since she had spent the majority of the part of her life that she actually remembered in a confined space, wishing to escape, she didn't get to see many natural marvels such as this very often; there was a small part of her that glowed with the knowledge that she was away from that hospital. It hadn't really hit her that she was out of that tiny, unbearable space until that very moment.

She was even sure that her life before the hospital must have been an extremely city-lifestyle, if she lived in Oxford before, so she wouldn't have seen spectacles like this one very often back then either; she had done some research on Oxford by asking the nurses in the hospital about it so that she could try and remember her old life slyly, but it didn't work. Despite her lack of memory, she realised how urban Oxford really was through her research.

"This is amazing…" She mumbled to herself. "Almost kind of…romantic…"

A sudden pain hit Jessie's chest as she had the thought of her and Jeff observing the fireflies together, maybe even holding hands and her leaning on his shoulder. She hadn't expected when she arrived at the apartments to be so desperate to be closer to the killer, but she guessed that her feelings for him before she lost her memories were so strong that she couldn't control them even now. Sure, Jeff wasn't the best looking guy in the world with his burnt skin and permanent smile, but he had something about him that attracted Jessie to him like a fly to road kill. She didn't know if she was just ignoring his rude attitude or his disfigured appearance, but she did know that he was the one person on this planet that she wanted to be with, no matter what.

The idea of a romantic moment with him pained her, since she knew that the likelihood of him actually standing beside her and holding her hand was lower than hell itself. It felt almost like she was so close to her love, but so far that she couldn't even touch it with a barge pole.

"Maybe…it's just not going to happen…" Jessie's eyes began to well up at the thought of Jeff never accepting her. "I want to remember what I did…so that I could make up with him, but….it won't happen. He'll never accept me…"

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

Jessie's heart stopped as she turned to her left, only to see Jeff the Killer just coming out of the bushes, with a shocked look on his face. The female killer blushed slightly at the knowledge that Jeff was watching her sob, so she swiftly whipped her tears away with the back of her forearm; unfortunately for her, Jeff had already noticed her tears and instantly knew that they were for his and her relationship. There was nothing else that he could imagine her crying about.

He couldn't believe that the one place that he had chosen to get away from all the drama with Jessie and her sudden return would be the one place that he would run into the girl herself that night; this firefly spot was one that he had discovered shortly after he first began to live in the apartments, long before he had even met Jessie. It was the place that Jeff had rested and relaxed in when he had nowhere else, especially in the summer, since the fireflies would be glowing brightly during the season. For once, he hoped not to be disturbed that night by anyone, but he guessed that his wishes wouldn't come true.

Jessie's caramel face became a deep scarlet as she tried to formulate words, but stumbled. "I…uh…I was just…I mean…i-if you wanna…um…uh…"

A floating sensation appeared in Jeff's heart as he looked upon the girl that he loved; there was one thing that he could never deny, even in his own head, and that was that Jessie was always going to be undeniably adorable to him no matter what. Her reddened face reminded him so much of the first time that they kissed, when they were on her couch and he held her for a while before sitting up and witnessing her embarrassed face, which looked like a tomato at the time. He knew that it must have been her very first kiss by the way that she was acting, which added to her innocent virtue in his eyes – and not only that, but her appeal.

Remembering this moment in his life made way for other memories of Jessie that he held dear to his heart to invade his brain, such as when she bathed him. He smelt like blood, guts and sweat when he sat in the bath and Jessie's smooth hands ran through his hair with the shampoo that she roughly pushed into his hair; however, his killing lover had the delicate aroma of peaches and cream that he couldn't get enough of. The feeling of her soft hands touching his scalp was relaxing and erotic in one motion; she was purposefully trying to be tough with her scrubs, but also had a slight hesitation, displaying that she didn't want to be too mean with her washing. She never knew that he noticed that and he would never let on that he knew either, otherwise Jessie's face might have become crimson as it had right there and then.

He hadn't thought about that in a long time.

"_Why strawberry? I'm gonna smell like a girl."_

"_No, you're gonna smell like a strawberry."_

"Jeff?"

The killer jolted as he realised that he was spacing out. Jessie stared at him with a tilted head and was about to reach out and touch his shoulder to make sure that he was okay and wasn't having a mini freak out or something. He noticed this and instantly turned to leave before Jessie could lay a single finger on him.

"No! Wait, Jeff!" She pleaded.

Her hand stretched out and managed to grab his white hoody without hesitation. Jeff was forced to stop in his tracks and turned angrily towards Jessie as a result.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled out.

"I-I…I just wanted to talk to you for a minute!" She yelled out with a crack in her throat. Regardless, she was pleased to know that she was actually speaking with the man that she loved, even if she was very nervous.

Jeff scowled. "We have nothing to talk about…"

"That's not true!" Jessie's eyes began once again to fill with tears and well up. Jeff noticed this and jumped. "Jeff, I know that I must have done something to make you hate me…that much is obvious…but I want to do something to make it up to you. Please let me at least talk it out with you. I hate the idea of you forever hating me…"

The murderer was appalled at Jessie's idea of the situation. "I don't…"

In that moment, Jeff realised once again that Jessie couldn't remember the night that she jumped off of the building and nearly died, or that Slenderman sent her to the mental hospital so that she wouldn't be involved in Jeff's world and she was safe from him. She wouldn't know that the reason Jeff was trying not to get too involved with her was so that she wasn't harmed by him or his world, not because he hated her. He must have given off that impression.

"I don't…hate you…Jessie…"

The teenage girl stared up at her love with large, brown eyes and blinked in disbelief; she had the idea in her head that Jeff despised her more than anyone else and yet, here he was telling her that he didn't hate her at all. She couldn't figure out whether to jump up for joy and cry or to grab Jeff and give him the biggest hug a woman could ever give a man. She decided to do neither and keep herself under control; although, her face was once again, a deep shade of red.

"You…don't?" She asked, now staring down at the floor in embarrassment.

Jeff followed her lead as he became crimson also and stared at the ground. "No…I don't."

Neither knew what to say or what to do now. The contact of Jessie's hand on his arm was causing Jeff to have the urge to grab her and push her into a tree as he invaded her mouth with his tongue, but he had to hold back. He couldn't lose himself to his longing until he sorted out this situation once and for all, when Slenderman came back. Jessie clutched Jeff's arm tighter as she knew that it would be the only contact that she was likely to have with him as long as she was living in the same area as him.

"If…" She began. "If you don't hate me…then…do you mind…maybe…watching the fireflies with me…for a while…?"

There was only one answer that Jeff could give at this point, since he knew that he didn't want to leave Jessie alone just yet.

"Yeah…sure."

~:~

All the two killers could hear was the sound of nature. The fireflies continued to glow and the killers sat beside one another, looking up at them instead of glancing at each other; it was a good thing too, since the both of them were red in the face and Jessie was trying and failing to hold in a massive grin from her joy that stemmed from being able to sit with the man that she loved in a romantic setting such as this one.

"T-The fireflies are really pretty…" She tried making conversation, despite her over-joyed state that she wanted to keep hidden at all cost, but Jeff wasn't sure how to respond to this.

"Yeah….I-I guess."

There was no part of Jeff that never thought that he would be in a setting like this with Jessie, making small talk and blushing until even _his_ ears were red. Once she was left at the hospital a year ago, he was sure that that would be the last time that he would ever see her, but his luck turned around; now, he was able to sit beside her, observing fireflies and knowing that she was safe and sound and, most importantly, with him.

He glanced over to her and noticed her playing nervously with her dark, silky hair as she stared at the floor; he hadn't really thought about it fully before, but he really liked her newly long hair. It gave her a dangerous, but elegant look that short hair would never have achieved; the smooth shimmer of it reminded Jeff of smooth leather, which really sounded bad-ass to him.

Although, Jeff couldn't deny that Jessie's old hair still was cute. It suited her personality more. She wasn't like Jane the Killer. She wasn't bad-ass. She was clumsy, ditsy and was more inquisitive than a small child was when they discovered the internet. He assumed that she simply grew out the hair because the hospital had just let her without really caring for her enough to give a damn about whether she had long hair or short hair. There was a small part of Jeff that wished that Jessie would just cut the hair and get it over and done with, but he knew that he didn't have the right to ask something like that of her.

Suddenly, Jessie got the courage to glance over to Jeff and noticed him looking at her; the both of them became ever redder and quickly looked away from one another. It was like a scene in one of those shojo manga books that Jessie had shown Jeff when they first met; he never thought that he would be acting like one of those love-stricken fools in those stupid stories. The tension of the situation was getting too much for him and he felt as though he should probably break it somehow.

"H-Have you ever seen fireflies before…?" He asked with a shaking voice.

Jessie's eyes gazed back at Jeff, who was clearly not able to look at her at all and she shook her head instinctively. "I haven't…I find them really pretty. Do you c-come here a lot?"

Jeff winced slightly. He couldn't believe that he had actually started a full-out conversation with Jessie. "Y-Yeah. I come here when I need to get away from the crap back at the apartments. It makes me feel like I'm far away from everything…even though the apartments aren't actually that far from here."

Jessie completely turned her head towards him. "So, it's like your sanctuary?"

Jeff's wide eyes glanced back at her and he smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"_I won't leave… I promise."_

GASP

Jessie's mind went blank for a moment as she suddenly had a vision of something that she had never seen before; Jeff tilted his head in confusion at her sudden blank face and surprised expression.

"Jessie?" He moved slightly closer to her. "Are you okay…?"

"Y-Yeah…I'm fine…"

A picture came into Jessie's mind that she could not, for the life of her recognise. She and Jeff were in a hallway, which for some reason looked familiar and she had her short hair, but it was slightly damp; Jeff was in his underwear, but his whole body was soaked, almost as if he had been in a swimming pool, but he was warm, so it was more likely a bath. He was on top of her and they were kissing like she had never known kissing to be before; his tongue was in her mouth and his hands were moving all over her body, causing her to feel as though she was melting under his touch.

Jessie had no idea when this was or why she could suddenly picture the whole thing so vividly; she figured that the whole scene was from her and Jeff were together last year, but had no idea how or why she had remembered that. The one thing that she wanted to remember more than anything was what she did to make them divide in the first place; however, she had no idea how they could move from being that happy to him not wanting anything to do with her.

"Jeff…" She mumbled, but managed to get his attention. "What was it that…made you…and me…go our separate ways…?"

Jeff jolted. There was a part of him that wanted to tell her everything and spew out all of his emotions regarding the day that she tried to kill herself, but he knew that he couldn't; Slenderman told him that day that if she found out everything suddenly, for example, if he told her everything about her past, it could mess with her brain and she might not be able to function. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, but he actually couldn't.

"I…I can't really tell you that…" He muttered softly.

Without even thinking about it, Jessie grabbed Jeff's arm again, causing him to blush gently and jump at her sudden movement. "Jeff, I need to know! It's killing me not knowing why I ended up so far away from you! I know that we were happy…I want to know what happened to that happiness!"

Jeff would never understand what torture it was to not remember anything about your past life and Jessie could never describe something so horrific to him; she wanted nothing more than to know who she was and what she and Jeff were like together. She didn't know what being in a relationship was. The hospital kept the patients from having close relations so that they could all concentrate on getting better – not that Jessie had ever wanted to be intimate with anyone in that hollow place – so she had never really seen what real couples were supposed to be like. She saw the doctors and nurses having affairs and rumours spread around the place about certain employed couples in the facilities, but those relationships were clearly just about sex and nothing else, so they weren't really anything to go on.

Jeff was Jessie's only hope and she was longing for something to let her know what love was like and why she let hers go.

Jeff swallowed some saliva loudly and sighed. "I can't tell you, Jessie. Please stop asking me." He got to his feet and wiped some dust off of his person as he reached his hand out to her. "Come on. I'll walk you back to the apartments."

Jessie stared at the floor for a moment and looked up at him determinedly. "You don't understand..."

"Huh?"

The killer got to her feet and looked sterner than Jeff had ever seen her before. "You don't understand what I'm going through at all, do you? I don't know anything about myself other than I'm a killer and no one likes me for what I did. The one shred of happiness that I ever had in my life was you and you can't even tell me what our relationship was like. All I want to know is what got us to where we are now. Is that too much to ask?! Unless…you do hate me after all."

Jeff frowned. "I said that I didn't hate you. I don't lie to people's faces about how I feel about them. If I hated you, you would know."

"Then why won't you do this one thing for me?!" Jessie shouted. "All I want is an explanation, but I'm not even allowed that?! How is that fair?!"

SNAP

"YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT 'BEING FAIR'?! IF YOU HADN'T OF BEEN SELFISH AS FUCK AND TRIED TO-!"

Both killers jumped at Jeff's sudden outburst and Jeff stopped when he realised that he had just done what he had done. All he could do was run away in the opposite direction and leave Jessie behind in the dust.

"Jeff! Wait!"

She ran as fast as she could after him, but couldn't get anywhere in her mission to find him once again due to her feet failing her and causing her to trip over on her face. Tears filled her eyes as she lifted herself up to her knees; she had really messed up now. Jeff had actually sat down with her and began speaking to her and the killer's anger couldn't subside and keep itself in her brain. She didn't know when she would have another opportunity like that again.

"I'm so stupid!" She yelled out at nothing. "I can't even maintain a conversation with the man I love! I'm just so useless! I just want him to love me again!"

"**DON'T BOTHER."**

Jessie winced as she heard a booming voice calling out to her; swiftly, her head turned from side to side, assuming that should we see a fellow monster standing by her in the bushes, but all she could see was darkness. Her heart rate began to increase as she realised that the voice wasn't coming from a person nearby at all.

"W…Who's there?" She asked with a quivering voice. "J-Jeff…? Laughing J-Jack? B-BEN?"

"**THIS ISN'T ANY OF THOSE PUNY MONSTERS, SILLY GIRL." ** The voice boomed out. **"I AM GREAT THAN ANY OF THOSE SPECKS OF DUST."**

"Who are you?!" Jessie was actually beginning to feel fear. For the whole time that she had been at the apartments, she hadn't felt scared in any way at all, despite being surrounded by monsters every day; however, now, she couldn't stop herself from trembling at the monster speaking to her. She knew that he couldn't be human and wasn't any of the monsters at the apartments either.

This was a different aura from them all together.

"**YOU ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO BE WITH JEEF." **Jessie blinked at the comment. **"UNTIL YOU GAIN POWER, HE WILL NEVER RESPECT YOU, LET ALONE LOVE YOU!"**

Something broke in Jessie as she clutched her fists and yelled back at the voice with determination, putting her fears aside. "And who the hell are you to tell me something like that, huh?! Who are you anyway?!"

There was a slight chuckle as the voice began to fade away. **"HE IS COMING…"**

Silence filled the area again and it was just Jessie and the fireflies. She had no idea what had just happened and who she was speaking to, but all she knew was that he was aggravating. It was bad enough having trouble speaking with Jeff, but hearing that she wouldn't gain Jeff's respect without power was really taking the cake. She didn't even really know what that meant; it wasn't as if Jeff was especially powerful, so why would she need power to be with him? It made no sense.

"Jessie!"

Instantly, the female murderer got to her feet when she heard the loud voice of Laughing Jack calling after her and the sound of his large, black boots running through the woods.

"I'm over here, Jack!" She called after him.

Almost simultaneously, the clown demon popped his head through the bushes and smiled when he saw Jessie's glowing face. "Thank the Lord. I was wondering where you went. I saw Jeff and he said that you were out here and I got worried."

"I'm fine." She tried to smile as convincingly as she could, which did seem to trick Jack. "Don't worry."

"Jeff didn't upset you, did he?" Jack asked, making a stern face.

"Um…no. He didn't. I just kind of bumped into him and…we didn't really talk." Jessie figured that telling Laughing Jack about the argument that they'd had moments ago would only give Jack and incentive to go and confront Jeff as quickly as he could; that would only make things worse, so she decided against it.

Laughing Jack sighed with relief. "Thank goodness." He took a hold of Jessie's hand and started to pull her along. "Come on. We'd better get back to the apartments. Who knows what monsters could appear and scare you?"

"Yeah…" Jessie muttered. "Who know…?"


	18. Chapter 17: Plan

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Plan**

The three individuals on their mission were all able to have quite a bit of a rest before meeting back up at the hotel to discuss their ideas for their future endeavour of finding Jeff the Killer. They had all established that out of their two mini-missions, Dan's and Anthony's was the most enlightening, since they learnt about other creatures, similar to Jeff and Jessie; however, Charlotte had only learnt that there was an unsolved case of a missing girl called Jane from back when Jeff had first become a killer – meaning that she was probably killed by him – and heard more about Jeff's home life, which she had known plenty about from her Jeff-obsessed brother and the Jessie case from the year previous.

Anthony had already explained to the police-woman that the Jeff the Killer fan-club had found quite a substantial amount of evidence that other creatures just like Jeff existed, which they had called Creepy-Pasta's or C.P.'s for short. At first Charlotte had found it very difficult to believe that there were actually creatures who weren't considered human running around and that Jeff was one of them, but Dan had looked up a couple of them on the internet and showed her pictures that he found. Dan was a master at getting into the deeper and darker areas of the internet from his research on Jeff, so it wasn't very surprising that he had managed to find these pictures in the first place.

"So…" Charlotte stated as she looked at a blurred photograph of Slenderman in a forest on Dan's laptop, which sat on the coffee table in front of them. "You guys think that these…things…have something to do with Jessie disappearing?"

It was times like these that Anthony wished more than anything that he could tell his partners about the ghost version of Sally living in his dreams; however, if he even tried to let them know that his dead best friend was living inside of his mind, they would probably send him to the same institution that Jessie was forced to stay in for a year, so that wasn't an option. Sally had shown him in his dream last night that Jessie being left at the hospital was the Slenderman's doing and not simply Jeff's. That was proof enough for him that these other C.P.'s had something to do with Jessie getting out of the hospital, but he would have to try and convince Charlotte some other way.

"Andy at the fan club showed us pictures of different Creepy-Pasta's together with Jeff." Anthony began as he sat in the soft, lilac couch opposite the police woman and her brother, who nodded in agreement. "The fact that Jessie even escaped the hospital and is nowhere to be seen in England must mean that she's gotten here somehow and here is where these…things live, including Jeff."

Dan jumped in. "Plus, how do you think Jeff got to England in the first place? He couldn't have possibly gotten there by himself, could he? One of his friends must have helped him. It makes more sense when you think about it like that."

Charlotte spent a moment contemplating the situation and seemed to have taken in what the boys had said. "Okay. So…these…_Creepy-Pasta's _helped Jeff out when he came to England, but what does that have to do with us being here now?"

Dan sighed. "You can be really stupid sometimes, sis."

The younger sister flinched and scowled at her brother. "What was that, you little punk?!"

Dan ignored his sister's question and leaned back against his seat. "Clearly, the brat wants us to go looking for one of these Creepy Pasta's, since if we can find them, we can find Jeff…and if we can find Jeff, ya'll can find Jessie."

Charlotte continued to scowl. "Oh yeah? And how do you expect to be able to find these Creepy-Pasta's then, huh? They're not just going to fall out of the sky?"

Anthony couldn't bare to watch this squabbling anymore; it was reminding him too much of himself and Sally when he was dreaming. "Well, that's why I suggest that we go back to the fan club and ask them where would be the best place to find some of the other C.P.'s. I wanted to ask you about this before I actually asked Andy, so what do you two think?"

"You really think that Andy prick is going to tell us where the damn things hang out?" Dan asked, sounding irritated. "I don't think so, Anthony."

"Why not?"

"He seems a bit shady to me." Dan's eyes drifted to the side of the room. "I don't trust him…"

Charlotte turned to her brother. "Why not? What was so strange about him?"

"He seemed like one of those people that would let someone else die for his own benefit." Anthony answered for his partner in crime. "He would rather let someone die then miss out on the chance to watch one of the C.P.'s do their thing…"

Charlotte gritted her teeth. "God…I hate people like that. Taking someone else's life for granted is unforgivable."

Anthony sometimes forgot that this girl with him was a police officer; she clearly had a very strong sense of justice and wanted to fight to preserve the peace that she loved so much. He had no idea how such a delicate, if not emotional girl could be set on keeping murderers at bay and how she could put herself in situations like this, simply for justice to prevail.

"We still need him to be able to find the places that Jeff could be hiding." The teen pointed out. "As much as we don't want to go back there, if we don't, this trip will have been for nothing…"

With a sense of regret, Charlotte exhaled. "You're right…but how are we going to make the C.P.'s lead us to Jeff? Will we follow them around? What if they try and kill someone?"

"You have a gun." Dan stated bluntly.

"Y-You don't expect me to actually _shoot_ at them, do you?!"

"You don't want anyone to die, right?" Dan cocked a smile. "Little miss morality will have to use her gun to protect civilians."

The glasses-wearing teen could tell that another argument between the two siblings was eminent and he would have to prevent it from occurring; he couldn't handle how much these two squabbled. "Dan's right, Charlotte. If we want to keep their victims safe _and _get to Jeff and Jessie, then we might need you to…you know…get your gun out."

The argument clearly wasn't over, since Charlotte stood and crossed her arms. "And what happens when those…creatures…see us?! You expect a silly gun to scare them off?! If they're not human, then bullets might not affect them!"

"We have to try!" Dan yelled. "Unless you want Jessie to run off scot free. We could solve so many other cases like this too. Think about how many missing persons or murder cases that these things have caused! You could be a damned hero in your department if we do this…"

It was true. Anthony had heard from Charlotte herself that the American police departments had been extremely stressed as to how many unsolved murders and disappearances there had been for the last few years; if she managed to solve them, she would be seen as a treasure back home. On the other hand, this mission was one that seemed way too dangerous for a teenager, an ex-university student and one police woman to take on alone. Charlotte definitely thought so as well as Anthony.

"I don't think that we can handle this alone…" She mumbled. "I may need to call in back-up…"

"Are you an idiot or something?!" Dan retorted. "You don't think that Jeff and his friends will run off the instant that they hear the police on their way?!"

"Well, we can't do this by ourselves!"

As the two began another argument – this time, one that Anthony could understand the need for it – the teen began to try and think up a strategy for their plan.

If Andy didn't want to tell them the location of one of the Creepy-Pasta's, they could easily ask him to go with them; Anthony thought that he didn't seem like he would miss out on an opportunity to see a kill – even though Charlotte would make sure that no actual killing would occur while they were there. Also, as long as they let the Creepy-Pasta know who Anthony is and that he was looking for Jeff, since Jessie had gone missing, they should lead them to the killer. He knew that the notion of using force to make them show the three where Jeff was seemed very unrealistic, considering who these creatures were.

Considering the Slenderman was deeply involved in Jessie and Jeff's relationship, there must have been other Creepy-Pasta's that were involved and wanted to help the two; therefore, finding Jessie in that town would not be that difficult if they found the creatures.

"Guys!" Anthony yelled, stopping their bickering for a moment. "We need to come up with a real plan, but this seems to be the only option we have. Are we agreed?"

Charlotte and Dan looked at one another before answering.

"Yes, Anthony."

"Sure, kiddo."

~:~

"Make sure that you come back before it gets dark, Jessie!" Laughing Jack yelled out to the murderous girl as she headed out of the apartment building that she was sleeping in. "Are you sure that you don't want me to go with you?!"

Jessie smiled back at her clown friend and giggled. "I told you, I'll be fine, Jack! Just relax and I'll be back soon! I promise! Oh, and thanks for the food!"

The clown demon's cheeks became rosy as he couldn't help but grin. "No problem! Enjoy your walk!"

The two killers had just enjoyed a meal of rice and curry that Laughing Jack had cooked for the two of them; he had clearly wanted to cheer the girl up after her moment with Jeff the night before and there was no better way to do this then cook for her – there's no better way to a girl's heart than with good food and good company after all. They both ate slowly so as to enjoy their food and spoke about trivial things that had been going on in the human areas of the world while Jessie was in the hospital. She didn't know why the world seemed so interested in things like a girl riding naked on a wrecking ball and someone getting attacked in an elevator by their sister-in-law when murders and kidnappings were happening wherever people roamed. It wasn't any wonder that no one had caught the monsters killing these humans when society was concentrating on superfluous matters such as this.

Aside from that, Jessie had thoroughly enjoyed her friend's cooking; she had no idea that a killer like Laughing Jack could also be such an amazing cook. If she had to sum up his food in one word, it would have been 'succulent'. She had told him so and the murderer could do nothing but laugh nervously and blush. It had been a long time since the female killer had seen someone be embarrassed for such an innocent reason. Back at the hospital, she had seen many of the patients be embarrassed, but usually when one of the doctors had touched them inappropriately – Jessie couldn't remember his name, but she had gotten him fired when she told one of the nurses what he was doing. In all honesty, she didn't want to remember his name; she was simply glad that he had never touched _her _when he was at the hospital; however, she got the feeling from the way that he looked at her, that she would have been next if she hadn't of done anything about it.

Jessie shook her head at this thought and tried to continue her walk without any bad thoughts about her past; however, thoughts of Jeff couldn't seem to leave her head.

"I really hope that he's there today…" She muttered to herself, gradually getting closer to the area full of bushes, where Jeff and her had sat and watched the fireflies the night before. "Maybe, I can talk to him about last night. I haven't seen him today, so he might be hiding out there…"

In all honesty, Jessie had no idea what she wanted to achieve through this hopeful discussion with Jeff. He had made it clear the previous evening that he didn't hate her, but getting closer to the female killer again seemed to be proving difficult for him for some reason. Jessie still didn't know what she had done to him before she had lost her memories and she was well aware that if she could just simply remember that, then making up with her love would be easier; however, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't remember what she had done to Jeff. She just figured that she would have to find another way to make Jeff comfortable around her again.

Struggling, Jessie pushed through the bushes forcefully and swiftly, hoping not to miss her long lost lover – in case he really was there and would leave before she was able to stop him to talk. Her heart rate increased at the thought of having to speak to Jeff out of nervousness and slight excitement; it was evident to her that despite her fear of Jeff never loving her again, she was always ecstatic to see him, even if it was just a glance of the killer or there was only one word exchanged between the two of them.

This was all because, regardless of their past, she knew that she loved him.

After a few moments of rustling around in the bushes and trying to find her way towards the fireflies once again, she finally reached her destination. She pushed past a final bush and smiled, preparing to see her love.

"Jeff! It's m-!"

Jessie paused.

No one was there but her.

The fireflies had disappeared – probably because it was still daytime – and Jeff the Killer was nowhere to be seen; the forest around the area seemed to be completely silent and there was no traces of anyone except for Jessie having been there that day. This shouldn't have been too much of a shock to the murder, since Jeff would probably be trying his hardest to avoid the places that she would go looking for him – even if this place was his sanctuary – but nonetheless, it still upset her to be alone in this place.

"Jeff…?"

No one responded to the melancholy girl's whisper as tears began to form in her eyes; she fell into the dirt on her knees and whipped the water drops falling down her cheeks before they could drop to the ground instead.

"I may be…" She began with broken sobs. "I may be out of…the hospital…but…I've never felt…more alone…"

"**DO YOU WANT JEFF TO LOVE YOU?"**

Jessie gasp and stopped her crying immediately. Her tears were instantly whipped away and straight away, she knew that this was the same voice that caught her off guard the night before. It was either fear or surprise that was running through her veins, however she couldn't decide which emotion to focus on more.

Her voice trembled. "You…who are you? _Where _are you?"

"**HAVNE'T YOU FIGURED IT OUT BY NOW?" **The voice's condescension was clear, but Jessie tried to ignore it. **"I'M IN YOUR HEAD, MY DEAR."**

Jessie stood and stared in the distance, not knowing how to take in this information. "My head? What do you mean by that?"

"**WHAT HAS BECOME OF YOU, MY DEAR?" **The voice hadn't answered her question, but instead, caused more to appear in her head. **"YOU USED TO BE SUCH A FEARLESS KILLER WHEN YOU LET YOUR BLOODLUST TAKE OVER YOU, BUT NOW, YOU CAN'T EVEN GET THROUGH A DAY WITHOUT SHEDDING A TEAR."**

It may not have important to anyone else who would have heard a demonic voice inside of their minds, however the only thing that Jessie took in of this strangers statement was that he had known or at least know _of _her from before she had lost her memories. If she played her cards right, she might have been able to find out something from her past, which she could use to make up with Jeff.

"You knew me from back then?!" She asked desperately. "Then…you must know what happened between Jeff and me, right?"

The voice stayed silent.

"Hey! You must, right?!"

"**IS THAT INSUFFERABLE, LITTLE BRAT ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT?!" **The stranger bellowed, causing Jessie to jolt. **"HE ISN'T IMPORTANT, JESSIE! YOU HAVE MORE OPPRESSING MATTERS TO THINK ABOUT, LIKE GAINING YOUR MURDEROUS TENDANCIES ONCE MORE! ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU?! YOU'LL NEVER KILL AGAIN AS LONG AS YOU STAY IN THIS HELL-HOLE APRTMENT COMPLEX!"**

This outburst was completely unexpected and perplexed the murderous teenager even further; she hadn't know what the stranger had wanted from her, but it was evident now that he wouldn't be helping her with her memory gain any time soon – at least for the purpose of making things right with Jeff. There was clearly a dangerous intent of this mystery voice by his emphasis on Jessie being able to kill again, but she couldn't figure out why he would want such a thing.

"W…Why would you…" Jessie began. "Why would you…want me to be able to kill again?"

"**WHY DO YOU NOT DESIRE THE SWEET TASTE OF DEATH, LITTLE GIRL?"**

Jessie clenched her fists, becoming tired of the lack of knowledge that she was gathering from this voice. "It isn't important to me if Jeff doesn't love me!"

"**YOU TEENAGERS AND YOUR LOVE…DON'T YOU THINK THAT JEFF WOULD LOVE YOU MORE IF YOU WERE MORE LIKE HIM?"**

Jessie paused. She hadn't thought of that previously. The way that Jeff was acting was clearly caused by something that she had done to him before her memories had been erased, but she hadn't thought about the possibility that if she did something that Jeff would love doing, that the chances of him loving her once again would be higher. It made sense.

"**JEFF LOVED YOU WHEN YOU WERE LIKE HIM. YOU NEED TO REMEMBER WHAT YOU WERE LIKE BEFORE…"**

Suddenly, the killer jolted and was taken somewhere else completely; she stood as still as a statue and watched as a brand new scene formed in her mind. She was in a basement of some sort, but she couldn't figure out where; she knew that she hadn't been there before as far as she could recall, but something about it seemed so familiar. The lights were dimmed, causing her to not be able to see around herself very well; however, an iron smell filled her nostrils that she couldn't mistake – blood.

There were shadows surrounding her that looked like sacks of potatoes, but Jessie was smart enough to know what they actually were; her eyes squinted through to ill-defined lighting and made out a stationary body in the shadows, covered in blood and the person's own bodily organs and fluids, such as saliva and urine – most probably produced out of fear. She couldn't recognise the person, but she could tell that there were at least five of these bodies and they all appeared to be her own age. There was a tragic beauty in this image that Jessie couldn't stop seeing; these boys died so young and still beautiful, even if their deaths were ugly and painful. Only a killer could see this kind of glamor in a crime scene.

_"YOU FUCKING PHYCHOPATH! WE WERE TRYING TO HELP YOU! GOD DAMN IT!"_

All of a sudden, Jessie jumped and looked in front of her to the obvious scene unfolding, which she had been distracted from by the bodies around her; there were two young girls on the floor, both her age, bleeding rapidly. One was a African girl with thick braids and her white teeth gritted as she yelled at someone in front of her; the other was an Eastern Asian teen who held onto her bleeding wound as she cried out in pain – as one would expect from a deep gash like hers.

_"I have to do this...to be with Jeff..."_

That was when Jessie looked before her and laid her eyes upon something that she had never thought that she would see – herself.

Except that this version of herself looked more like when she first awoke in the mental hospital, where she wasted away for a year. Her dark hair was much shorter, her demeanour more friendly and her bloodlust more evident.

_"You've got to be kidding me?! That murderer?! Is he more important to you than us?! And besides, why would you have to hurt us for him?!" _Yelled the African girl. She must have been talking about Jeff and Jessie's love for him.

The killer couldn't remember this at all. She couldn't remember killing anyone like this or even killing in a basement, where she could stash bodies; it clicked in her mind that the boys around her must have been other victims of hers. When she really looked at the bodies and the girls that laid on the floor in pain, she realised that they all looked familiar somehow; she couldn't put her finger on how, but they seemed to be people that she had seen before many times.

"**DO YOU SEE THIS?" **The voice appeared once again. Jessie wasn't even shocked at his sudden appearance, since she was too fascinated with the image presented to her to really care about the stranger. **"THIS IS YOU FROM WHEN YOU USED TO BE STRONGER AND MORE OF A KILLER. THIS IS YOU FROM WHEN JEFF LOVED YOU."**

All the girl could do was watch the scene unfold and her past self negotiate with the victims in front of her, trying to convince them that she had to kill them.

Nothing made sense to her. These two girls seemed to have a really strong attachment to her past self and called themselves her friend; they were even telling her, even after she had stabbed them, that they could help her with whatever problem she was having; however, all that Jessie could talk about was 'having' to kill them so that she could be with Jeff and run away with him to his place. She didn't understand what all of this meant. Could it have been possible that, the only way that Jessie could have gone to live with the man she loved was to…kill her friends? Is _that _why she had killed most of the people around her?

Although, these friends didn't seem as though they were the type of people that you could easily cut out of your life like that; they were clearly good people who only wanted to help Jessie, even after they had been attacked by her. She couldn't see how she could blindly follow Jeff, even if she did love him and still did, and murder someone that meant so much to her, or who she meant so much to.

STAB

_"AHHHH! STOP! STOP! PLEASE!"_

The past Jessie stabbed the African girl repeatedly. The bloodlust in her eyes was something that to a normal human would be terrifying and a horror to look upon, but to Jessie, it was the look of desperate hunger or thirst. She hadn't seen someone look so in need of something before – as far as she could remember. However, her past self wasn't what she was concentrating on. Her attention was focused on the victim and her screams of pain; the other girl could only lay down, holding her wound and crying out for Jessie to stop what she was doing, but she wouldn't.

The scene was sadder than she would have thought.

She wanted to stop watching.

But she couldn't.

She couldn't take her eyes off of it.

"…..ie…?"

She couldn't stop.

"…essie…"

She had to keep watching.

"JESSIE!"

GASP

Jessie had transported out of the scene. She was no longer surrounded by the sound of organs being impaled or the stench of rotting corpses, but was engulfed in the smell and beauty of nature once more. She was where she had been talking to the mysterious voice, where she and Jeff has watched the fireflies the night before.

Stood in front of her, holding her shirt with a child-like innocence, was Sally, holding her damaged, but cuddly teddy bear in her other hand. Her large, emerald eyes stared up at Jessie as if she were concerned for her well-being.

"Jessie…" She started. "You were lost. We couldn't find you. You were stood here, staring into space. Are you okay?"

This almost caused Jessie to faint with exhaustion and confusion, but she kept her composure for the sake of her young friend, so as not to worry her too much. "I…I'm fine…"

"Are you sure?" Sally asked.

"Y-Yeah…let's head back…."


	19. Chapter 18: He Is Coming

**Chapter Eighteen**

**He Is Coming**

"What is it you want to know about Jeff, Jessie?"

BEN and Jessie sat in the Link-lookalike's bedroom after an abrupt request from the murderous girl herself to discuss her long-lost lover; the events of the night before and her strange vision caused her to have serious doubts about why Jeff would be so hostile towards her at this point in their relationship and she thought that if there was one person that knew Jeff like a brother, it was definitely BEN. He was the most likely killer in the area that could give her the answers she needed.

"Well, BEN…" she began. "I want to know something about Jeff that only his very best friend could know…"

The gamer seemed concerned. "Okay…? Like what…?"

Jessie inhaled dramatically and tried her best to be blunt with her response. "Does Jeff have some kind of fetish for other serial killers?"

Much to Jessie's apparent and misguided surprise, her counterpart began to blush heavily and had nothing but shock on his face. Jessie tilted her head in confusion and innocence at BEN's reaction as she sat on his bed.

"W-Why do you wanna know something like that?!"

"I think the better question is, why are you so shocked and embarrassed that I want to know something like that?"

BEN seemed to be slightly irritated by Jessie's ignorance of socially acceptable questions and comments; this girl was older than him in maturity and looks and yet, she couldn't figure out what she had said wrong or why he would find it awkward to talk about his friend's sexual preferences? It took a moment, but eventually Jessie noticed something about BEN's reaction and smiled in a scheming manner.

"Oh, right…" She stood up and began to pat BEN's blond head gently, but patronisingly while she giggled like the school girl that she used to be. "You're still a kid, so of course you would get embarrassed by sexual questions."

The gaming demon softly pushed her hand away from his head, slightly irritated at her condescending attitude towards him. "That's not it! Jeff might be my friend, but he doesn't tell me stuff like that! If you're planning on trying to seduce him by killing someone, I don't think that will work…"

"That's not what I'm planning…" Jessie's caramel-coloured cheeks became rosy. "It's just…I know that he loved me before…when I killed people…and I thought that maybe…he didn't love me anymore because I'm not killing anyone now…"

It was perfectly clear why Jessie wanted to talk with BEN now in the killer's mind; he could see that she was simply attempting to figure out a way to make Jeff lover her again and knew that Jeff loved the old her and clearly wasn't found of the new her. The thought of Jessie thinking that Jeff still didn't love her caused for BEN's heart to send a small pain through his chest; Jeff may have been his best friend, but during their escapade the previous year, he had grown quite fond of Jessie and didn't like seeing her upset – it was like they were real friends, and her coming to the apartments has sealed the deal. When he found out what Jeff had done, he was very disappointed that he wouldn't be able to meet her in person and not through his computer world; however, he was glad that he was able to hang around her now. She was as amazing as Jeff had described her, even without all of her memories.

"He still loves you, Jessie…." He sounded almost pitying when he stated this fact, but he hoped that his fellow murderer would believe him. "He just doesn't know how to show it…"

"**_DON'T YOU THINK THAT JEFF WOULD LOVE YOU MORE IF YOU WERE MORE LIKE HIM?"_**

No matter how much Jessie wanted to believe that, the voice in her head from the day before kept creeping into her mind; she tried her hardest to shake the deep bellows of the stranger out of her head, however she couldn't help but think that he had a point. She hadn't killed a single person since she ran away from the hospital – not from lack of trying though – and Jeff had been trying to keep away from her since she had arrived from the apartments. Maybe, depending what she had done to him before she lost her memories the year before, she could get back on his good side if she killed again.

On the other hand, no matter how much bloodlust she had been feeling, being trapped in that hospital and all, the image that the stranger had showed her was more disturbing than enticing. Killing her psychologist was enjoyable for her, mainly because she had felt the urge to pierce that woman's skin since the moment she had met her and pent up that desire for a whole year, - plus, she could finally escape that hell-hole – but she hadn't been that desperate to kill someone since she escaped. She had just been trying to kill since then because it was a fun activity – not because she _needed_ to.

Maybe that was why he was acting like this…?

"If that's the case…" Jessie started to ask. "…then why hasn't he told me what I did to make him so annoyed? He told me that didn't hate me the other night, but…I did something bad, didn't I? Before my memories were gone…?"

BEN swallowed some saliva and sighed. "I…I can't tell you that…"

Jessie flinched. "That's what Jeff said! But…but I need to know what I did! Who I was! I deserve that much at least, right?!"

"Jessie…"

Tears began to well up the killer's eyes. "Do you know what it's like…not knowing who you are? I don't know anything about myself. I don't know how I met Jeff. I don't know what I used to study in school. Hell, I don't even remember _going_ to school! I don't remember what made me turn into a killer! I don't remember my family or friends! I don't know what I did in my spare time! My hobbies! My personality! My first encounter with Jeff! Nothing! Do you know what that's _like_?! What it's like to not have anything of your personality left?!"

BEN couldn't even speak. He had no idea how much her lack of memories was effecting her; he would love to bring her memories back to this tragic girl and reveal everything in one sit-in, but Slenderman's memory loss technique hadn't ever been reversed or even _attempted_ to be reversed, so he didn't know if it was safe or not. He knew how to do it, but didn't want to take the risk in case he damaged Jessie's long term memory or fried her brain with all of the new information.

"Even if Jeff never talks to me again…" A couple of tears dropped to the floor. "Please…just give me my old self back…"

He took a few moments to collect his thoughts, while Jessie got herself together and wiped her eyes – she didn't really like crying in front of others, so she was slightly embarrassed. The situation wasn't black and white. BEN couldn't simply restore her memories without taking the risk that she wouldn't be effected in the long-term by it; if he knew whether this would damage her mind or even her memories or not, then his decision would be made more easily. For now, he genuinely regretted that he couldn't do anything; he wasn't going to put Jessie in danger.

"I'm sorry, Jessie. I can't." He stated. "We're going to have to wait until Slenderman comes back to make a decision…"

"Slenderman?" Jessie asked. She had heard about him before from Laughing Jack when they were having dinner; he was apparently the leader in this apartment complex, who kept the others from not running rampant and killing whenever and whoever they pleased. He kept a chart on where everyone was and what they were doing, even if they hadn't told him where they were heading – no one knew how he did it, but it kept the killers safe from humans, trying to find them. She hadn't met him yet, but was looking forward to due to Laughing Jack's description of his bravery, down to earth attitude and fatherly effect on Jeff; however, she didn't know what he had to do with the situation, when it came to her memory loss. "What does he have to do with this?"

BEN hesitated. "I don't even know if I should tell you _this_, but the night that your memories were erased, Slenderman was the one who did it."

Jessie jolted. She'd had no inclination as to how her memories were erased or who was responsible for it before now; she had assumed that, since her medical records displayed a huge gash on her head when she was first taken there, that she must have somehow hit her head and gotten amnesia from that accident. She didn't realise that someone who lived in this place had the ability to do something so paranormal. She knew that the killers she lived with weren't exactly human, but she didn't know to what extent.

"W…Why would he do that?" She asked, clearly becoming upset at finding this out. "Why did he erase my memories? What happened?!"

"I can't tell you that…but I can say that it was for your benefit." BEN's hands interlocked and he looked towards the floor. "We don't know the risks of telling you about your past. Whenever he's erased memories in the past, he hasn't tried to regain them before, so we don't know if it's a smart thing to do or not. It's too risky…we have to wait until he gets back from his trip to the city and then…we can decide what to do…"

Jessie followed her friend's lead and looked to the floor. "When do you think he'll be back…?"

"I wish I knew…"

This may have been grave news, but at least Jessie was one step closer to finding out about her past. The disappointing thing however, was now knowing that she had had her memories erased purposefully, instead of it being an accident; she didn't know if she had requested for it to happen or if Jeff and this Slenderman had done it without asking her, but either way, she knew for a fact that she had caused this to happen. Jeff had said that she had done something that he considered 'selfish', meaning that her actions led to her memories having to be erased. This wasn't the most joyful piece of information to have locked up in her mind, but at least she had learnt something new.

The child murderer finally decided to look up at Jessie and enquired something that had been playing on his mind since she had arrived. "Jessie…if you don't mind me asking…how is it that even though you don't remember your past at all…you still remember Jeff and your feelings for him?"

Jessie looked up as well and began to blush slightly. "Uh….well…" she began. "I guess it's because…even though I forgot my life, family and friends…I always remembered this guy. I didn't know his name or what he looked like, but I remembered him telling me that he loved me and that he would…smell like strawberries if I washed his hair…even though that sounds really weird. I also remembered him having the voice of a smoker, just like Jeff. The moment that I saw Jeff….those feelings of love hit me and I knew that he was the guy that I remembered...almost like love at first sight…"

BEN's blood stained eyes widened. "You mean…you remembered Jeff even when your memories were erased?"

"Well, I didn't know that it was Jeff _specifically_, but I remembered him saying that stuff and knew that it was Jeff the instant I saw him…"

This caused BEN to marvel at the girl before him. He had never heard of a human undergoing memory loss at the hands of the all-powerful Slenderman and managing to remember anything, let alone someone that they cared about. Jessie's undying love for Jeff caused her to be able to keep the memory of Jeff alive in her mind in some shape and form. The small killer smiled at the thought and was happy for his best friend for loving a girl with such determination and evident strength during depressing situations.

Jessie sighed. "BEN, I'm going to go for a walk and collect my thoughts…"

The kid snapped out of his state of admiration. "Oh, um…sure, just make sure not to get into trouble out there, okay?"

"I won't…" she went to leave. "I promise…"

~:~

It was all coming together for Jessie as she wondered down her usual path, towards the firefly area, and she was beginning to understand more and more about her situation. She still had no idea why Jeff seemed to not be able to form a connection with her – like they had supposedly possessed before their year apart – but she was starting to see the situation for what it was. She had done something to cause him to grow angry with her and was forced to erase her memories; she still didn't know if Jeff was the one who dropped her at the hospital, but she was very sure that he was – which upset her greatly. That place was hell on earth and she didn't want to believe that the man that she loved would ever send her somewhere so barbarian.

So, the missing pieces of the puzzle consisted of her reasons for having her memories erased by Slenderman, the reasons for dropping her at the hospital and who had dropped her there.

"If there's one person that can get me this information…it's the voice…"

The reason that Jessie had abruptly left BEN's room was to gather more information; considering that this voice that kept coming into her mind had shown her a scene that was clearly from her past so vividly and easily, he would obviously be the one to go to for more clues regrading her past. She didn't know what this voices intentions were, but she did know that he was willing to show her scenes that she would otherwise have never witnessed.

"He keeps coming to me in the forest, so that's where I'll go…"

She pushed through the shrubbery, shoving branches and bushes out of her way violently, desperately attempting to get to the spot as quickly as she could; the thought of Jeff being there, sat among the verdant, natural, vibrant, romantic spot hadn't even crossed her mind this time around. She had no time for wishful thinking anymore; her finding out what happened between Jeff and herself last year was more important than trying to make up with Jeff now. If she knew what she had done, the chances of making up with him would grow dramatically anyway. He could wait.

She reached her destination and saw no Jeff or fireflies around. This didn't discourage her and she instead, walked to the centre of the area, surrounding herself with large, aging, but dying trees and the entire forest. Her determination was clear as the fire in her eyes made its appearance and she refused to smile or seem hesitant in her actions; her fists were clenched and her teeth gritted.

"Okay…I know you're out there." She stood her ground and tensed her body. "Whoever you are…I wanna talk to you…"

"**ARE YOU MAKING DEMANDS, CHILD?"**

She jolted, but also felt relieved. Her sudden idea to talk to the voice wasn't necessarily going to work and she was so glad that it had at least reached this part of the plan of action; however, she still needed to get to the 'gathering information' aspect of it out of the way.

"I-I'm not making demands…" Jessie noticed the slight hesitation in her voice and inwardly cursed; she didn't desire to show weakness to this figure, whoever he was. "I just want to know a few things…"

"**I CANNOT TELL YOU TOO MUCH HERE, CHILD. BEN'S AND YOUR CONVERSATION WILL NOT BE COMMENTED ON BY ME."**

"Wait…" Jessie muttered. "You know about mine and BEN's conversation?! How?!"

"**I TOLD YOU BEFORE…I AM IN YOUR HEAD. I KNOW ALL THAT YOU KNOW AND MUCH, MUCH MORE."**

Jessie didn't know what to make of that comment. It seemed really far-fetched that this voice was actually in her head, unless she had actually snapped and went insane; plus, if that were the case, it didn't explain the vision or why she doesn't hear him when anywhere else but the forest.

"If you're in my head…then why is it that you don't speak to me when I'm back at the apartments? I can only ever hear you when I'm here…"

"**THIS IS THE ONLY AREA THAT I CAN THROW MY POWERS AROUND. IT'S WHERE MY CONNECTION TO THIS WORLD IS AT ITS STRONGEST. I'M A VERY COMPLICATED BEING."**

Jessie's confidence began to grow as her need to know more about her situation overloaded; she placed her hands on her hips and became impatient. "Why can't you tell me anything? If you're all that powerful, then why is telling or showing me my past experiences so difficult for you?!"

"**IT ISN'T DIFFICULT. I JUST DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU ANYTHING."**

This angered the girl. "What's that supposed to mean?! Why not?! Why bother showing me _anything _if that's how you feel?!"

"**BECAUSE I HAVE A PROPOSAL FOR YOU, MY DEAR…"**

"What? A proposal…?"

The wind began to blow harder all of a sudden, causing Jessie to have to hold her extremely long, flowing hair so that it didn't blow in her face.

"**COME WITH ME AND YOU CAN KNOW ALL…"**

"With…you…?"

"**I'VE BEEN WATHCING YOU FOR A LONG TIME. YOUR DESPERATION AND DETERMINATION TO FIND OUT THE TRUTH OF YOUR CAPTIVITY IN THAT HOSPITAL. I KNOW THAT YOU LOVE JEFF AND WANT HIM TO LOVE YOU. THAT CAN ONLY HAPPEN IF YOU COME WITH ME AND JOIN THE OTHER KILLERS WHO ARE PRODEGIES OF MYSELF. I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE THE SKILL TO BECOME AN AMAZING KILLER AND WARRIOR FOR ME."**

"Warrior?!" Jessie didn't know how to take all of this in. She hadn't thought that this voice would be so militant and powerful as to have other killers fighting for him and killing for him. She didn't know who this voice was, but he was clearly a big deal when it came to monsters. "You…who are you…?"

An eerie, echoing laughing vibrated through the forest and the voice didn't respond to Jessie's question; the wind grew more violent and forceful, almost pushing Jessie to the floor and making her have to hold onto a nearby tree so that she didn't fly away. Many vibrantly coloured leave flew by her head and conjugated in one area of the forest, right in front of the killer.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" She screamed out, barely even able to hear herself over the gush of wind. "WHO ARE YOU?! ANSWER ME!"

Suddenly, sounding almost as if the voice was whispering in her ear, she heard a response as the wind settled down.

"**I AM THE ONE WHO WILL MAKE YOU POWERFUL AND GREAT…"**

Jessie waited for the wind to calm down before standing and looking around herself to check if this creature was behind her or around the forest; she didn't believe that a voice inside of her head could make the environment around her go crazy like that. Alas, there was no one there.

She turned back to the pile of leaves that had suddenly gathered in front of her and her eyes widened as she saw the leaves spell out a word that she had never seen before, but she was certain answered her question as to who this monster was.

'ZALGO.'

* * *

**Hello everyone :)**

**So, before I talk about anything else, that's right. This is Zalgo. He's the one who's talking to Jessie and trying to get into her mind and whatnot. So, the plot thickens. I wanted to include him in 'Jeff the Killer: Not Expected', but never found a way to do it without making the story too dramatic. I love that I can actually include him now and make him a good villain for the crew. Sorry that there was no JeffXJessie action in this chapter, but that stuff will be coming back again soon.**

**I also just wanted to let people know - in case they hadn't read CreppyPasta's Nightmare - that I'm not at university. And despite popular belief, I have way more spare time then I know what to do with. Most of my work involved reading, since I'm doing English, but I get that done very quickly; plus, my assignments aren't too difficult, so I have a lot of free time. Just saying this so that you guys know that I'm still alive and still writing. **

**I hope to have your feedback on the chapters and the story. Leave a review and I hope you guys keep reading it, because shit is going to go down pretty soon in the story. Plus, no spoilers, but there might be a bit of smexy times with Jeff and Jessie :3 Can't wait to write that part.**

**Anyway, I'm going to head off now. Hope you liked the chapter :)**

**~Ciao**


	20. Chapter 19: Working It All Out

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Working It All Out**

The slowly moving breeze was flowing through the air as Anthony, Charlotte and Dan were wondering towards the Jeff the Killer fan club; the policewoman had no idea what she should be expecting or what was ahead of her in this journey, but she knew one thing – she wouldn't be impressed. Any group of people that could idolise someone who could kill as many people as Jeff had were clearly the kind of group that she – as a warrior of justice – could never understand or like at all. Her expectations of what the group would be like were already negative, however the boys were giving her a brief of what she should be expecting when she arrives at the place.

"One thing that you need to remember is that the group love the idea of these…C.P.'s being real." Anthony pointed out as he walked alongside Charlotte. Dan walked ahead, with slumped shoulders with his hands in his pockets, as was expected from the anti-social adult. "They might say things that aggravate you…as a cop…but we need to stay calm for the plan…okay?"

Charlotte felt her back to check that her gun was in the place that she left it – in the back of her trousers – briefly. Anthony had asked her not to bring it along, since it might arose suspicion of her and the group as a whole; however, she refused to go anywhere without it on this mission. She couldn't bring her gun holder around with her when walking around the city, due to her being undercover, so she had to make due with hiding it. She never knew when someone could attack her or she would need to arrest someone for anything that they could be doing and therefore, she was stuck trying to keep Anthony and Dan safe from harm. Besides, they were in America, where guns were legal – unlike the U.K. – so, anyone could try and attack them at any point. She needed to be careful.

"What kind of things…?" She asked suspiciously.

"Well…" The teen hesitated. "They talk about…death a lot. It's something that makes you annoyed…trust me. They talk about human life like…it's nothing…but we need to stay calm…"

"That might be hard for me…" Charlotte glared at the floor, already irritated. "I'm not going to hold my tongue if they act like heartless people."

Dan turned for a moment. "We don't have a choice, Charlotte. If we start an argument with them, it's likely that we'll have to leave and we won't get any information. _Then _our plan will be a bust. Do you want that?"

"You want me to withhold my beliefs for some brat I don't even know?!"

"Yes!" The older brother retorted with. "If we want to catch Jeff and Jessie, you'll have to just suck it up!"

The rest of the walk towards the fan club's headquarters was in silence. Anthony couldn't defend Charlotte in this instance, since he could tell that behind Andrew's happy-go-lucky persona, must have been a deep, dark sociopath, considering his love for these serial killers; there was no way that someone who was into researching someone like Jeff the Killer – unless it was for revenge, like Dan had been doing up until now – was actually constantly smiling and as innocent as Andrew presented himself to be. Jessie was very similar in her obsession with serial killers and she turned out to be one herself; according to Anthony, that was as much evidence towards Andrew being sinister as he needed.

Charlotte's idea of speaking her mind and arguing against someone like that could result in something that the three of them wouldn't be able to handle on their own – even _with _Charlotte's gun. The fan club outnumbered them and since owning guns was legal in the U.S. and considering the kind of things that they were looking into, it wasn't very strange to think that they might be packing heat.

They were coming closer to the building that the club resided in when Anthony and Dan noticed Andrew outside of the place, just like the other day, when they had first arrived. All three of the investigators got themselves ready for an important part of their mission that they couldn't mess up on.

"Hey!" The head of the killer-lovers club waved his arms rapidly as he grinned and ran over to the group. "You guys made it back! Awesome!"

Anthony put his best pretend smile on and exhaled, trying to release the negative energy out of his system. "Yeah, Andrew. Thanks for meeting us outside again."

"Oh, Anthony. I told you to call me Andy, man! We're friends aren't we?" The researcher's eyes drifted to Charlotte and his cheeks lit up slightly. "Oh, and who is _this_? This couldn't be that beautiful Charlotte that you two were telling me about the other day, could it?"

The policewoman blushed heavily and Dan flinched with irritation; she wasn't used to being called beautiful by strangers, only Brandon, who complemented her on a daily basis. "Oh…uh…yeah, I'm Charlotte."

Andrew pushed passed Anthony and gently caressed Charlotte's hand, kissing it softly; this caused Charlotte to blush even harder, which seemed to provoke Dan's anger even more.

"Madam…" Andrew gazed into the policewoman's bright eyes and smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you…"

In that instance, Dan swept in and pushed the Casanova out of the way of his sister, growling as he did so; his hand grabbed Andrews and he held it tightly, almost as if he were going to crush it, much to Anthony's annoyance. The teen wanted the mission to go without any of Dan's emotional outbursts, but they had been there for a few minutes and already, it had escalated and caused an argument and a physical confrontation.

"Hey…" Dan mumbled. "That's my sister you're putting your slimy claws all over. She's engaged before you even start thinking about it, okay?"

Charlotte's face decreased in its crimson appearance and she widened her eyes at her brother's actions; he hadn't always been so approving of Brandon for some reason that she could never figure out, despite only meeting him once, when she introduced him to the family. He had spent most of his time when speaking about him actually insulting him and telling her that she could do better. They'd had pretty violent arguments about the subject actually, but she tried her hardest to ignore it as much as she could; however, this was the first time that he had actually made any positive statement about Brandon at all. By keeping Andrew away from her, he was defending Brandon's honour as her fiancé, which meant that he at least preferred Brandon to Andrew. This thought made Charlotte smile.

Andrew laughed awkwardly as he pulled his hand away from Dan's grip. "Sorry, bro. I didn't really know that. I wouldn't have said anything if I had. It's just that your sister is gorgeous."

"Well, don't talk to her like she would waste her time with you." Dan kept going. "She's too good for you…"

Anthony was shocked at how over-protective Dan was actually acting; it was true that last time they met Andrew, he showed a similar attitude towards Charlotte, but nothing on this scale. It was nice to see him acting like a big brother should have been acting. In response to this, Andrew simply sighed and began to walk towards the building.

"Well, I can't argue with that…" The three of them followed him. "Come on. Let's head in."

The club room was exactly the same as it was when Anthony and Dan had visited last time, with the same people on their laptops and reading newspaper articles and papers and photographs scattered everywhere. It reminded Charlotte of the police office at her station after a murder would have happened; they would place photos of the victim and suspects all over a billboard and discuss the incident using the photos and information that they'd had. The image was almost making her think of home.

Andrew stretched his arms out and grinned heavily. "Take a look around, Charlotte. That's why you guys came back, right? For her to have a look around too?"

Charlotte's eyes were drawn to the photograph of Slenderman and Jeff the Killer that had caused Sally to react the last time that Anthony was there; her eyes widened as she feasted her eyes upon the ridiculously tall, faceless and slender monster. Anthony noticed and knew that they needed to get on with the mission, otherwise Charlotte would ask too many questions and they would probably get into an argument or something.

"Actually…" he began, hands in his pockets. "We wanted to ask you guys some questions…"

"That's cool! Ask away, bro!"

Dan stepped in, acting as if his earlier confrontation with Andrew hadn't happened, much like Andrew was doing himself. "We wanna know if you guys know of any places where the C.P.'s meet or are commonly seen."

"Oh…" Andrew seemed to need to contemplate for a moment before answering. "Well, the closest place that I can think of…there's a forest near here where people say to have repeatedly seen Masky and Hoody – two of Slenderman's disciples."

The idea of Slenderman actually having other monsters to follow him around and kill like he does was very disturbing for Anthony to hear; he wondered if they had powers like he did – for example, making people come back to life in the form of ghosts in others heads – which occupied his thoughts for a minute.

"Could you tell us where the forest is?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, sure." Andrew answered. "Although, I wonder…why do you want to know that?"

Hesitation appeared in Anthony. He couldn't help but distrust Andrew with his attitude towards human life and he knew for a fact that if he revealed his plans to the man, that he would become excited and would want to come along too – which could actually jeopardise the entire plan. Nothing could be allowed to step in their way when trying to find Jessie and this man was about to become an obstacle.

Before Anthony could say anything, Dan stepped in and displayed his always prominent annoyance. "We don't have to tell you anything, Andrew. We have our reasons and don't feel like saying them right now, got it?!"

Andrew laughed softly. "Don't worry. If you don't wanna say anything, then you don't have to. I was just curious."

Dan's furious eyes glanced over to Anthony for a brief moment and he gave a soft and subtle nod; the teenager's eyes widened as he realised that Dan had stated that miniature outburst because he knew that Anthony wouldn't know how to handle that question alone. He was actually looking out for him for once instead of just insulting him and calling him a 'kid'. This was a shock, but Anthony wasn't about to complain.

Andrew brought out a map of the area from a nearby desk and laid it out on a table, over a bunch of newspaper articles and photographs; the map had markings in crimson ink all over it and one specifically caught the eyes of the group of three. There were repeatedly drawn circles all around a certain area of the map that was labelled 'The Murder Forest', also by the red ink. Andrew pointed at the circle and grinned eerily when he saw the mapped forest.

"This is the Murder Forest." He began. "It's a forest where loads of people have gone to, but have never returned. Teenagers have been going missing in that area for a long time now, but no one has done anything about it. Teenagers can be idiotic sometimes, you know. They want to go and see something dangerous and cry and scream when that thing turns out to be real."

"And you've never told to police to seal it off because…?" Dan asked in a snarky voice.

"Because the police won't seal off an area just because people are going missing in it." Andrew retorted. "Until they find bodies, they won't seal the area off because there isn't any proof that people are dying there."

"He's right…" Charlotte stated softly. "The police wouldn't seal off the area, but simply investigate…and if these things are as dangerous as we think they are, then it would only result in more murders…"

Andrew smirked. "Wow, Charlotte…how did you know that?" The policewoman flinched. "I only know that stuff because I asked a friend of mine who used to be in the force when asking him for advice…but how do _you_ know that?"

Anthony and Dan froze and knew that the second this smiling fanboy found out that their accomplice was a police woman, their plan would be over before it even began; he would most definitely want to get involved in what they were doing out of interest and that would completely ruin the mission.

Charlotte simply smiled and giggled childishly. "Well, my daddy used to study law when he was in university and I used to ask him loads of stuff about it. Being a simple girl myself, I would never be able to know something like that without asking him."

Dan blinked, unable to hold back his shock at his sister's act and wondering how she came up with that lie about their father on the spot, while Anthony smiled. Charlotte was a professional at what she did and would have needed the skill of lying and acting to be able to interview criminals and go undercover for certain cases; it wasn't surprising to him that she would be able to act this way at all.

"Oh, that makes sense." Andrew laughed. "Your dad must know a lot about this stuff then. Well…I guess that the other reason why I haven't said anything to the police is out of…a kind of fear…"

"Fear?" Charlotte asked.

"Of the Creepy-Pasta's…" A sudden serious tone invaded the room as Andrew looked over the map. "If we prevent victims from going to the forest or try to stop them…they might find us and…you know, do what they do best…"

"Why would they do that?" The teenager raised his eyebrow. "You practically worship these things. Surely they wouldn't do anything to the one group of people who actually _like _them."

"They wouldn't care…trust me…" The killer-lover attempted to turn his attitude around and smile once again. "We can give you the map if you want. Just make sure you bring a weapon if you're going there, okay? Don't be like a stupid teenager in a horror movie and trip over your own feet defenceless."

Anthony nodded. "Thank you, Andrew…"

A sudden grin overcame Andrew's face. "So you _are _going to the forest, huh?"

The group jolted, but before any of them could say anything worse to provoke a snarky response from their host, Charlotte jumped in and giggled once again. "You think we would want to go somewhere where those dangerous things are? Honestly, Andy, you say the weirdest things. Why would we-?"

"Cut the act, Charlotte." Andrew interrupted. "I know who you are." The atmosphere became tense again. "You think I would research Jeff and not know the police officers who worked on the case in England? Your accent was a pretty big giveaway anyway, but you didn't even try and disguise yourself…"

Charlotte frowned. "Okay, so you know who I am…so what? What does that change?"

"Well…I want to know more…" Andrew stated, confusing the group.

"More about what?" Charlotte answered back.

"I want to know more about the Jeff case…and about Jessie Walker…"


	21. Chapter 20: Conflicting Feelings

**Chapter Twenty**

**Conflicting Feelings**

Jeff sighed heavily as he stood by the dirty river that flowed through the apartment area; he'd purposefully tried his hardest to stay away from the actual apartments in an attempt to avoid Jessie, but this act was slowly beginning to lose its appeal. He couldn't even head to his room to sleep without awkwardly running into her or seeing his old lover and hiding so that she didn't lay her eyes on him and want to talk to him; he knew now that he couldn't avoid her forever and live his normal, melancholy life anymore with her around. It was becoming a huge hassle, but more than that, he didn't want to _have_ to avoid her anymore.

Jessie was the one thing in his life that he'd actually felt something real for. He'd never been so distraught about something before, even the death of his family; every fibre of his being wanted nothing more than to find her, grab her and never let go of her again. The decision of either sending Jessie back to where she came from when Slenderman came back to the area, or keeping her there and telling his higher up killer that he wouldn't let her leave was still floating around in his head and he couldn't decide which would be best for Jessie.

In Jeff's opinion, the only reason why Jessie had gone to such lengths to find him was because she couldn't remember what she had done in the past and how it made her feel; she couldn't recall the regret or the loss that she suffered when she killed her parents and friends and just simply remembered her instinct to kill and her love for him. If she could remember those feelings of despair and heartache, then maybe her attitude would be different and she would want to get the hell away from the apartments and Jeff. She didn't understand the situation she was in or why she wanted to simply end it all and die in the first place, whereas Jeff remembered that night as if it were yesterday. He remembered how his heart sunk as his love climbed up to the edge of the roof of that tall building and her – then – short hair flowed in the wind slightly, giving her an angelic look before she attempted to take her own life. He remembered how she smiled as she cried before gradually falling backwards to her death.

"_I love you, Jeff…"_

The killer violently shook his head as a way to get rid of the memory for a moment as he continued to think about what to do. He didn't want to keep Jessie there through some kind of selfish wish to have everything be back to how it was and how he wished last year that his life could have been; that wasn't fair on her, since she couldn't even remember their relationship's past or anything that he had made her do. He couldn't deceive her and keep her with him knowing what he knew about her; however, he couldn't just let her walk out of his life again either. He didn't want the one thing in his life that he couldn't function without to disappear again and leave him killing and raping women as a distraction again.

He couldn't go back to that life again.

"Jeff!"

The killer turned around speedily and thought of the saying 'speak of the devil and he shall appear' before feasting his eyes upon Jessie Walker, sweating and panting. It was obvious that she had rushed over to him as quickly as she could – he just couldn't avoid her when she kept trying to actively look for him whenever she had a free moment.

As soon as Jessie realised who she was standing in front of, her face became crimson and she looked down towards the floor while gripping her baggy shirt, her knees trembling. Jeff couldn't understand why she would go out of her way to look for him when all she did when she saw him was blush and become embarrassed; though on the other hand, he wasn't complaining when he got to witness her cutely act nervous around him. The scene almost made him smile before he exhaled loudly and exaggeratedly.

"I just can't seem to get away from you, huh?" Jessie glanced up with an apologetic look on her face. "It seems that no matter where I go, you always seem to find me…"

The female killer jolted and looked to the ground once again. "Actually…I can never seem to find you. You…seem to be really good at hiding from me…"

Jeff felt amused. "How do you know that I'm hiding from you? That's slightly egotistic of you to assume…"

Jessie's eyes now became determined and she stared Jeff straight in his eye-lidless eyes, which surprised the murderer slightly; he hadn't seen her act so confident in a very long time. "Don't act like you're not running away from me. Everywhere I go, other killers say that you've just left the area. It's obvious that you're avoiding me."

The killer smirked. "Fair enough. So…Jessie…why are you here?"

The teenager's confidence suddenly disappeared as she thought of a way to ask her question, twiddling her thumbs. "Well…I think that it's kind of obvious what I want to know…but…I…do you…?" She paused for a second and exhaled, trying to keep herself together in front of the man she loved. "Why are you avoiding me so much? What did I do in the past to make you act like this…?"

Jeff flinched.

There were only two ways to go about this situation – answering the question, knowing that he had no idea as to what would happen to Jessie's mind if he did this, risking her getting hurt or having long-lasting damage to her mind; or he could lie his way out of it and make excuses, which is what he had been trying to do until now and not been doing very well at so far. There was no way that he could tell her anything until Slenderman came back and told him whether he could or not. He had to be honest with her and tell that he just couldn't say anything.

"Jessie…" He sighed. "I can't tell you anything…I'm sorry."

This answer clearly wasn't good enough for Jessie. "Why not? Everyone keeps saying this, but no one is giving me a good answer! I just want some kind of closure. You don't have to tell me anything too _dangerous_, but knowing _something_ would be good enough for me!"

"I just can't, Jessie!" Jeff's voice grew deeper and emotional for a moment, almost as if his voice was about to crack. "I can't risk it when you can't remember anything of your past. I don't know what will happen to your mind if I tell you anything. It's too risky…"

Jessie frowned. "But I remember _some_ stuff!"

"Yeah, you remember how you feel about me and-!"

"No!" Jessie interrupted. "I remember killing these two girls who were my friends!"

Jeff jolted. "W-What?!"

"I had this sudden flash of memories…" The nervous girl continued. "I didn't mean for it to happen…I saw myself in some kind of basement…with this black girl and Asian girl…" Jeff knew that she must have been talking about Lavinne and Ann-Ann, but had no idea how she remembered this. "I was…stabbing these two girls…you ran in after it was all over, I think…but I was covered in blood and…their insides…"

Jeff swallowed some saliva, realising that this image was doing something to his heartbeat; he still couldn't help but still feel something sexual towards Jessie and the sexy way she killed and stabbed people. He still remembered how much he wanted to do her until she couldn't walk when she killed John and his gang of thugs, but tried his best to hold it back so that she could come to terms with what she had done on her own, without any distractions.

"Jessie…you don't need to continue…" He didn't want have to stop himself doing anything that he would regret.

However, Jessie ignored him and kept speaking anyway, trapped in the memory; she still couldn't imagine herself killing her friends, but she had witnessed it with her own eyes and couldn't get the image of her stabbing both of them to death out of her head. "My knife slid into the black one first…she started screaming and yelling at me. She was crying from pain…and betrayal too, I guess. The blood was just…oozing out of her. She tried to stop it with her hands, but that just covered her skin in her own blood."

"Stop…" Jeff mumbled.

"I started laughing…" Jessie continued. "She fell to the floor and I just laughed. I went for the other one then…as she cried and cried, not knowing what to do…which made my heart race…and I just…grabbed her and stabbed her in the stomach. She fell down too, but I got on top of her…and kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing. I watched all of the blood flow to the dirty ground. I watched her insides as they began to cease to function. Her blood…so much blood…"

GRAB

All of a sudden, Jeff grabbed Jessie's arm unexpectedly and roughly, not showing his facial expression to her, and dragged her away from the river and towards the forest area; Jessie almost dragged her feet in protest and from fear, since she didn't know what was going on. She clutched her own arm and tried to pull Jeff off of her, but it was futile. He was much stronger than she was.

"Jeff?! What are you doing?!"

Once they were further into the forest, where no one from the apartments could see them, Jeff pushed Jessie to the ground more violently than he had anticipated. She laid on her side and quickly looked back up at her attacker, fear in her eyes due to her confusion and lack of knowledge on Jeff's motives for taking her into the forest.

Before she could really react, the killer got down on his hands and knees, gripped the back of her head, and pushed his face into hers. Before she knew it, his tongue was in her mouth and they were making out.

'_J-JEFF?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" _She thought to herself as her face became an all new shade of red and she flinched in response to the kiss.

Jeff pushed her down completely, his elegant tongue still inside of her mouth, moving around violently, as he placed his hands over hers, holding her down; she was trapped under the man that she loved in this precarious situation that she wouldn't be getting out of anytime soon. As they both enjoyed the sensation of each other's mouth muscles moving around one another, Jessie let out an unintentional moan and blushed even harder as a result of it. This caused Jeff to rub his tongue even harder than he had before and rub his crotch against Jessie's – just like they had done a year previous, not that Jessie could of remembered that event. This was all a shock to her. To her, this was the first time she had ever done something like this.

She struggled and wriggled under Jeff's tough embrace, but couldn't break free of his grip; she wanted some kind of explanation as to why he was acting this way, but couldn't move her mouth away long enough to be able to say anything, let alone get some answers. Jeff suddenly moved his mouth away from hers, giving her the opportunity that she needed to ask him what the hell was going on, when his tongue began to move up and down her neck.

"Ah!" Jessie moaned. Her heartbeat increased dramatically as she felt a tingling sensation in her lower stomach; she had never been touched by a boy before in a desperate way like this – as far as she could remember – and had no idea how…good it felt. "Jeff…ah…mnn…"

Jessie's moans weren't helping Jeff be gentle with her and try to keep his cool, even just a little bit. His mouth automatically bit down on the girl's neck, making her let out even more, louder moans; one of his hands covered her mouth, just in case someone from the apartments heard what they were doing and decided to come over and investigate. That was the last thing that he wanted.

Rapidly, Jessie's body began to tremble as she continued to wondered why Jeff was doing this; no matter how amazing this felt – especially since it was with Jeff – she still wanted to know why the man who had proclaimed to not want to tell her anything of her past, was suddenly trying to touch her and kiss her; however, there was something that she knew for sure…

She wasn't complaining.

This was all she had wanted since she woke up in that hospital with her memories of Jeff. She had wanted for them to kiss and touch and hug and do everything that _normal _couples were supposed to do. She had wanted to feel his embrace and try her hardest to give him pleasure, just as he would try to give her pleasure – like he was doing just now. This couldn't be a more perfect moment for her.

Her one free hand made its way to Jeff's rustled hair and rubbed it gently.

"_Jeff…"_

GASP

Jeff stopped. He was brought back to reality as he pushed himself up, so that he was on top of Jessie. Her hand touching him brought back the memory of when they first met in her house and she did the same thing to his scar. Back then, she was innocent and easily corruptible. Now, she was a product of what he had made her out to be.

What was he doing to her?

Jessie looked up at her lover with her large, brown eyes and tilted her head. "Jeff…?"

He couldn't do this.

He got to his feet and dashed off faster than cheetah going after its prey, heading back to the apartments.

"_What the hell was that?!" _He thought to himself. _"What the hell was I doing?! Jessie…! Why?! Why can't we just…DAMN IT!"_

"Jeff!" She yelled after him, but stayed on the ground, sat up. She was too dizzy and weak from what had just happened to get up and run after him, but she had managed to attempt to get up, before falling on the ground on her front. "JEFF!"

Her heart was still racing. That was certainly an experience that she had never thought she would have; she assumed that this must have been what it was like for someone to feel 'turned on'. During her time at the hospital, she'd heard the nurses talking about their boyfriends and guys that they had slept with, but didn't understand what the appeal was. Even the idea of kissing anyone but Jeff seemed disgusting in her opinion; however, that experience had made her realise that being intimate with someone that you loved and cared about was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. It was like every happy feeling she'd had combined into one moment.

She placed her finger gently to her lips, recalling he feeling of Jeff's on hers. "Jeff…"

"**PATHETIC."**

The voice was back. Jessie didn't have time to talk to this 'Zalgo' person and didn't want to right now. She got to her feet and glared at her surroundings, hoping that she would convey that she was glaring at the voice.

"I don't have time for you right now!" She yelled, nearly in tears.

"**DOESN'T THAT PERFORMANCE SHOW YOU THAT I WAS RIGHT?" **It continued. **"HE'LL ONLY EVER WANT YOU IF YOU'RE POWERFUL LIKE HIM. HE PROBABLY RAN OFF BECAUSE HE REALSIED THAT YOU WEREN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM."**

Jessie growled. "That's not it…you don't know what you're talking about…"

Zalgo chuckled. **"AS IF YOU KNOW THE REASON WHY HE RAN AWAY…AT LEAST MY REASON IS PLUSABLE."**

"I may not know the reason, but I know that Jeff wouldn't be so much of a dick to run away simply because he doesn't know how powerful I am or something! He's not an idiot like you!"

"**WOW…YOU HAVE GUTS TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT."**

Jessie turned towards the apartments and began to walk back, towards where Jeff headed. If there was one thing that she knew, it was that she didn't want to waste any more time talking to this guy when she could be getting more answers out of Jeff and figuring out why he was acting so irrationally.

"**YOU'LL COME TO ME EVENTUALLY ANYWAY…EVERYONE ALWAYS DOES…"**

Jessie paused and turned back around for a moment. "Yeah, well, not me! All I want is Jeff and for you to leave me alone!"

"JESSIE?!"

In Jessie's peripheral vision, she could see Laughing Jack running towards her, waving his arms around so that he could show her clearly where he was; Jessie turned around, hoping that Zalgo wouldn't speak with Jack around. She didn't want him spewing his nonsense to her friends as well. The demon clown panted once he got over to her and laughed slightly.

"Sorry…I knew that you must have been with Jeff when I couldn't find you earlier…I passed him on the way here and he said you were in the forest…and he-!"

Jack paused and started at Jessie's neck. She couldn't figure out what he was looking at and tilted her head. "What? What's wrong?"

His face contorted into a mischievous smile. "Have you two been making out?"

Jessie's face instantly became crimson as she widened her eyes and panicked inwardly. "W-W-What?! W-Why?!"

"Well…your neck has a love bite on it!" He giggled like a school girl. "Plus, Jeff did seem quite flustered when I saw him!"

Jessie blinked, still blushing. "What's a love bite?"

Jack jolted and remembered that Jessie had spent the majority of her memorable life trapped in that hospital and probably didn't know a lot about sexual acts; he sighed and laughed. "Don't worry. Anyway, are you alright?"

She looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with him. "Honestly? No…"

It was clear to anyone looking at her face that her upset was due to Jeff and his attitude towards her; Jack wished that he could do something to make her feel better, but he knew that the only two ways in which to do that would be to either make her remember her past, or to make Jeff stop acting like a child every time her was near her. It was becoming incredibly difficult for him to simple watch as Jeff confused and upset this sweet girl.

All of a sudden, a light bulb shone over Jack's head as he came up with a good idea. "Hey, Jessie!" She looked up at him, shocked by his sudden excitement. "Do you wanna come to the city with me?"

"The city?" Jessie asked. "Why would we go there?"

"That's easy!" Jack smirked. "To kill of course!"

* * *

**I know that I keep saying this to you all, but I'm sorry for the late updates. It isn't fair on you guys to wait so long for each chapter, but personal issues keep coming up and making me not want to write. I've been having a lot of things come up recently and they have been taking up a lot of my time. Plus, university is taking a lot of time as well, since I have to read a novel and a short story a week for my course.**

**I've just been really occupied. I'll try my hardest to keep writing and uploading as much as I can, but I won't promise a specific time hat I'll upload. I'm sorry guys.**

**~Ciao**


	22. Chapter 21: Greed

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Greed**

"Wait a damn minute!" Dan yelled out to Andrew, alerting the other members of the club and causing them to stop what they were doing and listen to the conversation between their club leader and the strangers. "What do you mean 'tell you about Jessie Walker'?! You're the damn expert on her! Why should Charlotte tell you a damn thing about her?!"

The club leader chuckled softly and pulled the map off of the table and rolled it back up. "Well, we may be experts, but no one knows more than the people who were actually there when it all happened. Besides, I can't give away a piece of club property without knowing that I'm getting something good in return."

Anthony gritted his teeth. "I knew there was something fishy about you just offering to help us. I should have known that you were secretly after information…"

Dan began to walk out of the room, stamping his feet like a toddler having a tantrum as he did so. "We don't need your stupid map! We can _Google _the damn place and find it on our own!"

"That's how idiots go in there." Andrew stated calmly, gripping the map tightly and stopping Dan in his tracks. "Teenagers who don't know the forest _Google _how to get there and go in blindly. We know where the Creepy-Pasta's go when they look for prey, where they avoid and why, where's a safe spot to take pictures from a distance and where to make quick escapes. You won't find information like that anywhere else and _we _can write it all down on the map for you."

Charlotte put her hand on her hips and sighed. "And all you want in return is classified, police information about a case that terrorised the whole of the U.K., huh?"

"Just a little bit more context as to why Jessie decided to try and leave with Jeff and why she killed would suffice." The obsessive man said this as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be wondering someone's motives behind a murder that they had nothing to do with; now Charlotte knew why Anthony had told her to get ready to be annoyed and want to leave the place. "That's all I want. We know everything there is to know about Jeff, but…" He pointed at Anthony. "This guy here knows everything there is to know about Jessie Walker. The new Creepy-Pasta on the list of our favourite killers, who we know next to nothing about. After all…it's hard to research someone that's locked away from the public eye, right Anthony?"

The teenager flinched and became more angered by the second. He hadn't wanted to think of Jessie at all before Charlotte had come and found him again, but now was asked to talk about her in depth in order to acquire the tools necessary to keep her out of his life for good. Nothing could have prepared him for this, but he knew that it had to be done.

He exhaled. "What do you want to know?"

Dan stepped in. "No! Kid, you don't have to do a damn thing this creep says!"

Charlotte touched the glasses-wearer on the shoulder and nodded in agreement. "He's right, Anthony. You don't need to do this. We'll find another way…"

Anthony brushed off the hand on his shoulder and smiled at them both. "I don't mind, guys. He just wants to know some information…and getting the map would make our lives much easier."

Andrew clapped his hands, the map under his arm. "Good choice, Anthony! I don't want to know too much anyway, so this won't take too long."

A frown appeared on Anthony's face as he glared daggers at this sick man before him. "Alright…then ask me what you want to know so that we can get the hell out of here."

"Well, I would like for you to ask me more nicely, but I guess that will have to do." Andrew scratched his chin as he thought of what he wanted to know, his followers waiting with pens and paper in anticipation. The sight made Anthony want to be sick. "So…I guess the first thing I want to know…is something that the news implied, but never confirmed…were Jeff the Killer and Jessie Walker really lovers? Is that why she escaped the hospital? To see him?"

Anthony swallowed some alive, remembering his strong feelings for his old friend and how heart-broken he was that she had found someone else to be with, let alone the fact that it was Jeff the Killer. "Y…Yes. They were together. We assume that's why she escaped from the hospital, but we don't know that 100%…"

"Yes! I knew it!" Dan and Charlotte glared at this man, wondering how he could get so excited at a topic that resulted in a huge amount of deaths and murders. They both wanted to grab Anthony and leave, but knew that they needed the map to fulfil their plan. "Awesome! Two killers falling in love and killing together! That's something that we've never seen before! How…delicious…"

Anthony snapped. "What else do you want to know?! We haven't got all day!"

"Oh! Sorry! Um…what else…? Uh…" Andrew took a moment to think and then came to his conclusion. "Oh yeah! I want to know why Jessie decided to leave with Jeff! It seemed a bit strange that she would only start killing when she met him. Was she normal before she met him?"

"Yeah, she was…" Anthony looked to the floor. "She wouldn't have hurt a fly before she met that…killer. She defended her friends when they were bullied, but that was the only time she would ever be violent with anyone. She hated fighting unless it was in a video game or in manga."

"Then why did she research serial killers in her spare time?" Andrew asked.

"In all honesty…" Anthony's voice became soft. "I don't know. She always made out as though she was sweet and innocent, but that was the only strange or violent thing about her. I always thought that it was because she wanted a distraction for when Sally and I weren't with her so that her mind would never drift onto her family problems…her mum was…awful to her…"

"Is that why she killed her?"

"I don't think so. She wouldn't have killed anyone unless Jeff convinced her to. He said to Sally and I that she was 'like him' and to let her go, but…Sally could never accept it. She fought to keep Jessie with us and to never let her leave with Jeff…she thought that she was still the same Jessie that we'd loved all this time…"

"What about you?" Anthony jolted. "Do you think that she's like Jeff? Or is she still the Jessie Walker that you knew and loved?"

"She's not the same." Anthony stated bluntly. "She's an evil murderer who killed my friends and her own family. She's not the Jessie Walker that I cared about…she's a murderer…"

Charlotte winced as she remembered the distraught Anthony from a year ago, when they were investigating the case; it had always been obvious to her that Sally and he had been withholding information from her and the police force, but she never thought that she should act on her hunch in case she was wrong. Now she regretted her decision. If she had asked them both to tell her everything they knew, then there was a possibility that Sally and Jessie's parent wouldn't have died and Anthony wouldn't have had to go through all of this emotional turmoil. Dan simply looked to the ground, understanding how Anthony felt to an extent; having someone being taken away from them because of Jeff the Killer, whether it be through death or running away, was at least one thing that connected them both. That was something that he couldn't ever use against Anthony in their playful arguments.

Andrew smiled. "Well, I guess I can't ask any more than that. You seem to be emotional as it is and I don't want to make you feel even worse."

He threw the map back onto the table and unravelled it, writing in a red marker that he kept in his pocket all over the area with the forest. Charlotte blinked with puzzlement. "That's all you wanted to know? Really?!"

Andrew stopped writing for a moment and looked up at the police-woman. "I'm not a monster. I wasn't going to push a million questions in his face at once. He's still clearly upset about what happened and people effected by the Creepy-Pasta's always need space and time to get over what happens to them. I'm not going to jeopardise his chances of moving on with his life."

"_He _is still here!" Anthony shouted. "And if that's the case, why did you ask me _anything_?!"

"Well, honestly, I just wanted to know why Jessie would have run off like that." Andrew kept writing on the map as he spoke and his disciples quietly spoke about what they had just found out and how it backs up or annihilates certain hypothesis that they had about Jessie – Dan and Charlotte still heard them talking and cringed at their conversations. "It seemed weird that a girl who was seen as normal by everyone around her would have just up and killed the people close to her. I know that she researched serial killers, but that doesn't really explain it to me. Who better to confirm my suspicions then the guy who knew her the most?"

Anthony glared at Andrew, annoyed that he had to re-live something that he never wanted to think about again just so that he could have some questions answered. Before he could complain though, Andrew rolled up the map and handed it to Charlotte, smiling.

Hesitantly, the police-woman took the ready map from him. "Remember to not try and do anything dangerous. These killers are like nothing you've ever seen before. You think Jeff was bad? Well, these guys are capable of things that you've never even dreamed were real. Don't try and fight or capture them, got it?"

"Why shouldn't we?" Dan asked aggressively. "They deserve it! We can take a few little, pansy killers!"

"Well, apart from the fact that it would interrupt our research of them…" This statement made the trio cringe and glare at Andrew. "You would get hurt or even killed if you attempted it. Why do you think we've never tried to talk to them? We would _love _to have interviews with them and find out more about them, but we value our lives too much."

"Well…" Charlotte began. "Some things are more important than us. What we're doing could save lives. I think we're willing to sacrifice ourselves for something so important."

Andrew chuckled. "What a police-woman's way of thinking. Well, you don't have to listen to my advice. Just be careful. I'd love to see you guys again and learn what you found out."

Anthony walked towards the killer-lover and held his hand out. "If we get back from this…you will be the first one to hear about it…promise."

Andrew was taken a back, as well as Charlotte and Dan; they both couldn't understand what Anthony was doing. He had made it very clear that he didn't like Andrew or his morals, so why would he be willing to give him any information, useful or not? Andrew smiled out of surprise more than anything.

"What's this?" He asked, laughing nervously. "I didn't expect this."

"Think of it as a thank you for giving us the map." Anthony gave him a genuine smile. "We wouldn't get anywhere without it. We may not agree on certain things, but this is something that neither of us could fight over…you've saved our asses."

Andrew blinked and then smiled awkwardly, grabbing Anthony's hand. The group left abruptly after that. Andrew saw them off and went back into the building confused.

"I can't understand that guy…" he mumbled to himself as he looked down at the hand that Anthony hand touched. "I guess he must be a good guy. It sucks what Jessie did to him…breaking his heart like that…what an evil bitch…"

A chuckled escaped his mouth.

"How fun it will be to capture her and find out about her…"

~:~

"What a freak!" Dan yelled out as he sat on the sofa back at the hotel. Anthony sat next to him, looking at the map on the table in front of him and Charlotte sat opposite both of them, drinking some tea to try and calm herself down from what had happened at the fan-club's headquarters. "Why the hell did you shake his hand, dumbass?!"

Anthony sighed. "We want that guy on our good side. I don't know if you noticed it, Dan, but he's a complete psycho and I don't want him hating us. Who knows what could happen?"

"Look guys…" Charlotte put her tea down on the side table next to her and crossed her arms. "No matter what happened there, I took a big risk and brought my gun out to this place for a _map _of all things. Will you two please tell me why it was so important to get this thing? And _please _don't tell me that you're planning to capture one of them and bring them back here to interrogate one because mother and father wouldn't approve of such things!"

"Who cares what mum and dad think?!" Dan bellowed. "We're not dumb enough to want to bring one here! Who the hell would do that?!"

"Then what was your genius idea, professor?" Charlotte asked sarcastically. "Anthony?"

Dan huffed and crossed his arms as well, looking down to the ground as Anthony began to speak. "Well, we've seen certain Creepy-Pasta's in photographs with Jeff back at the club and realised something. If the Jeff killings are still going on around here, then that means that Jeff must be back at the place he was trying to take Jessie to. As far as I know, that place was where all of the Creepy-Pasta's go – like a club house for them or something."

Dan grunted, still not looking at his sister or friend. "And we figured that if he's there, then his friends must know where he is…meaning that we can find him through them."

The blond woman's eyes widened. "You want to capture one and make it take us to Jeff?!"

"Why not?" Anthony stated. "They'll obviously know where he is if they're friends with him. It's perfect."

"It's not perfect!" Charlotte stood up and slammed her hands on the table where the map was. "This could be really dangerous! You heard what Andrew said about them! And he's the expert! We could be killed!"

"We have your gun if things get to bad." Dan stated bluntly. "Plus, Andrew's clearly not right in the head, so why should we listen to him? Do you have any other ideas?"

Anthony got to his feet. "Charlotte, you brought me here to come up with ideas and that's what I'm doing. We have to do this."

She clenched her fists. "I'm not sure about this…"

"Charlotte…" The police-woman looked up at Anthony. "I need to do this…"

Dan nodded. "We all need to. Anthony needs closure, I need revenge and you need Jeff and Jessie put away. Think of how many other killers we could get rid of by doing this…"

Silence. Charlotte thought about this for a moment, wondering what she should do; when she asked Anthony to do this, she didn't think that she would be putting him in this kind of direct danger. The same went for Dan. She didn't want any of them to get hurt, but she couldn't argue with them. They were right.

"O…" She began. "O…Okay…Okay, we'll do it."

Dan smirked. "That's more like it."

"When did you guys want to get this done?" She asked.

Anthony smiled. "Tomorrow night."


End file.

Book X-overs, Drama, Horror